The Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) is taking the lead on the I-AM initiative but will involve other agencies. In Ethiopia we are having talks with Gobez Media, Mekane Yesus College and Animate Addis Ababa! (AAA!). Gobez Media is a film company that produces documentaries, Mekane Yesus College which describes itself as ‘committed to produce ethical and competent graduates with entrepreneurial mindset, undertake problem solving researches, disseminate knowledge, and provide demand-driven transformative community services’, wishes to add animation and digital graphics to its curriculum., while
AAA! is a new organisation that offers introductory courses in 3D animation. We believe that using the experience, connections and focus of I-AM we can build creative synergies with these agencies.

The prospective manager of I-AM is Trevor Jarvis, an artist, animator and educator who has more than 25 years of experience in introducing learners to the core principles of storytelling through animation. Through Trevor we have contact with and support from animators who have made it to the top of their professions and who hold Trevor in high regard as the teacher and mentor who set them on their path. These high level professionals will be able to support the ongoing learning community that comes out
of the first courses in Addis Ababa.

Trevor also has contact with IT professionals in London who are working on providing a cloud based connection so that software needing high specification computers can be accessed from servers in the UK by lower specification machines in Addis Ababa. The I-AM project, in addition to introducing young people to skills that potentially empower them personally, is about Black African identity and empowering the voices of young people in Ethopia to tell their stories through the use of visual tools, it is also about having that voice speak with other young voices, globally, about the existential issues, including climate change and global inequality, that affect them as individuals, as Africans and as children of humanity and of this planet.