How to use this directory of resources

Click on Browse/Filter to narrow your search by checking specific communities and services included in the EchoX community listings.

EchoX includes a steadily growing searchable database of organizations, groups, writers, artists and others organized by ethnicity, cultural focus, type of heritage work and/or type of community action. Check back often to see newly added listings!

Want to add yourself or a group to the EchoX community listing?
Community resource listings will grow organically as you and others are added! If you’re involved with community work related to EchoX themes – ethnic cultural heritage and social action – click ‘Sign Up’ in the upper right corner and add your own page to the Directory for free!

After clicking ‘Sign Up’ you will be taken to a form to fill out to create your account. Once you open your account, you’ll have ongoing access to an EchoX backend template where you may provide any information you want others to see. You can also add your own events to the calendar with details and artwork.

Send the EchoX link to your own supporters. Site visitors will learn more about you, your work and your events!

Directory

Browse using the links below, or Filter on any combination of Community Focus and Resources.

Community Focus

Culture

Experiences

Faith

Gender & Sexuality

People with Disabilities

State

Resources

Advocacy

Community

Education

Expression

Food

Health & Wellness

Language

Media

Essential Services

Business & Nonprofit Resources

Our Child Sponsorship Program directly supports vulnerable children and their families through monthly donations that provide food, shelter, clothing, and educational opportunities all the way through university or technical college. Our Richard Oslund Medical Clinic provides medical treatment, prenatal care, immunizations, family planning, and health education.



The Blue Nile Children’s Organization (BNCO) is a nonprofit organization based in Seattle and operating as a licensed NGO in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. BNCO’s mission is two-fold: to build a promising future for orphaned and vulnerable children in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods of Addis Ababa and to address the critical public health needs of this neighborhood and surrounding communities.
  • Advocacy
    Charity & Humanitarian Aid

Blue Nile Children’s Organization (BNCO) was founded in 2001 by Selamawit Kifle, a successful Ethiopian businesswoman living in Seattle. Ms. Kifle established BNCO to provide humanitarian support to the many orphaned children she had seen living on the streets of Addis Ababa. Ms. Kifle understood that poverty, poor hygiene and sanitation, high rates of infectious disease, and lack of education all created the conditions that left so many children orphaned.

BNCO became a legal entity in the USA in 2001, following its first humanitarian mission in 2000 to assess the needs of orphaned children in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian government then donated five acres of land and a license to take care of 28 orphans. A Foster Parent program emerged, as well as plans to build a village in a remote area of Bahir Dar. Fundraising began, but BNCO was not able to raise enough money to begin construction within the government’s short time frame. In 2003, the land was deeded back to the Ethiopian government.

Losing the land in Bahir Dar was both a devastating and enlightening experience for BNCO. Rather than accept the setback as defeat, BNCO revised the plan and in 2005 asked for land to build a more modest 3,550 square foot medical clinic. BNCO was certified as an international NGO and in 2008, the Ethiopian government donated land to build a community health clinic that would serve the orphans, their foster families, and the surrounding community. The land is in Kebele 15/16, the poorest neighborhood in the underserved Addis Ababa sub-city of Kolfe-Keranyo. The clinic was built due largely to the generous bequest of a member of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle and officially opened in 2010. In a country where there is only one physician for every 75,000 people and most cannot afford the bus fare to a distant clinic, Blue Nile Children’s Organization and its Richard Oslund Memorial Clinic has become a vital community resource.