– See: YouTube Updates
Anna Cottrell raised funds on Indiegogo.com, an American crowd funding site, to take Terefe Ejigu‘s mother Mulu to her son’s graduation in the States.
Terefe left Ethiopia when he was 13 to join his refugee mother in Wellington, New Zealand. He hadn’t seen her for almost 10 years. He spoke limited English when he enrolled at Wellington College. Five years later, he was a school prefect and a role model. Early on he was spotted as a gifted athlete and represented New Zealand on the track at the Youth Olympics in Morocco.
His dream – to follow in the footsteps of other internationally known Ethiopian athletes to the Olympics.
But his dream almost unravelled when his marks were not sufficient for him to take up the offer of a scholarship to the States.
Finally after 18 months into a degree at Victoria University in Wellington, a friend helped him reapply. His good grades won him a scholarship to Eastern Michigan University, where he was a star student and athlete. For three years in a row he has been named Most Valued Performer at the Mid American Conference.
10 years after arriving in New Zealand he was selected as one of the 57 top scholar athletes in the States.
The documentary will tell a mother’s story too – of becoming a refugee and being separated from her three children for eight years.
Update: Apart from a 10 minute documentary we never secured funding for this moving story. The family has moved on…to Australia. Terefe is married as are both his sisters. Mulu is working as a carer. ‘I’m in touch with them. They would love their story to be told. So would I.’ Anna Cottrell
NZ camera Ivars Berzins, Chris Terpstra, Isaac Spedding
NZ sound Michael Kerslake
US camera Mike Wilkinson
US sound Rich Wieske
AC Productions 