Family – Open Hearts Big Dreams

Why do you volunteer with OHBD and what impact has it had?

Ellenore Angelidis — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:04:43 +0000

Guest Post by Amelie LaPorte-Manahan I was adopted from Ethiopia as a child and have grown up in the Seattle area. My family first got involved with Open Hearts Big Dreams (OHBD) when I was a baby. They have been connected with OHBD ever since, but over the last few years I have been actively contributing. It’s exciting to be part of global literacy and this cultural community!

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ANDROMEDA, from GREECE to ETHIOPIA and back again

Ellenore Angelidis — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 05:57:42 +0000

Guest Post by Eleni Athanasopoulou It was late summer 2021 when I watched a video of a young girl (Leyla) reading aloud from a bilingual book about Ethiopia. An idea immediately sparked in my mind: what if we created a paired Ethio-Greek book from the #ReadySetGo book series? It was late summer 2021 when I watched a video of a young girl (Leyla) reading aloud from a bilingual book about…

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Some Words of Inspiration from our Logo Designer and Artist Yeggy Michael

Ellenore Angelidis — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 18:30:40 +0000

Yeggy Michael, artist and designer of our logo, yeggysworld.com My vision is to provoke questions about natural cycles, provide a sense of place and to reflect on the movement of time. My paintings, I consider personal works though they are for others. They are positive contacts for vibrant thoughts and spiritual moment. I use mosaic to illustrate the unity and lusciousness of diversity.

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The Gift of a Book

Ellenore Angelidis — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 04:43:56 +0000

by Mesfin H. Beshir In the quiet town of Shashemane, Ethiopia, there lived a parent named Shewangizaw Tesfaye. He had two bright children who loved stories but had never owned a book of their own. Most evenings, Shewangizaw would gather them under the shade of a big sycamore tree and tell tales he remembered from his parents and grandparents—about lions with golden manes, rivers that sang…

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Volunteering is a Two-Way Street

Ellenore Angelidis — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 20:07:59 +0000

by Michael Angelidis Giving back is very important to any society and volunteers are integral. Today we all lead extremely busy lives and it can be hard to find time. However, the benefits are enormous; providing important support to organizations, like OHBD, dedicated to worthy causes all over the globe. One of the more well-known benefits of volunteering is the impact on the community which…

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Making Big Dreams Happen with Rotary

Ellenore Angelidis — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 18:40:59 +0000

In 2024, we celebrated seven years since publishing our first titles. Back then, we believed the most important thing we needed to do was create the content, big, beautiful early readers in heart languages celebrating the stories and culture of Ethiopia. We were right and we were wrong. The content is at the heart of our mission, but the books must also get into reader’s hands. Given that our self…

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Spreading Book Joy in Ethiopia

Ellenore Angelidis — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:38:02 +0000

This is a guest post by Samara Alazar, one of volunteers about her experience leading a project to fundraise for locally printed books and distribute them in Ethiopia. Over the winter break of 2022, I traveled to Ethiopia. My goal was increasing literacy amongst underprivileged children. I have been working with Open Hearts Big Dreams to translate children’s books into Spanish I also sold…

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IBBY Ethiopia and Open Hearts Big Dreams Announce Exciting New International Developments

Ellenore Angelidis — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 17:56:25 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Yoseph Ayalew phone: 251 965 696 969 / 911 227 650 / email: yosephopenheartbigdreams@gmail.com Ellenore Angelidis phone: 425-295-8841 / email: ellenore@openheartsbigdreams.org IBBY Ethiopia and Open Hearts Big Dreams Announce Exciting New International Developments March 2024 – The Ethiopian Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY…

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Connecting to Roots and Giving Back Through Children’s Books

Ellenore Angelidis — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 19:34:11 +0000

My name is Nadine Roose. I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. My mom is Ethiopian, and my dad is Dutch and almost every summer since I was 5, my family and I have visited Ethiopia. I always stay with my grandparents in Addis Ababa, but throughout my visits I see many aunts, uncles, and cousins. I love going to Ethiopia, I feel at home there and…

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Bilingual Children’s Books delight Ethiopian and Greek kids in Greece

Ellenore Angelidis — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 05:37:35 +0000

We have a wonderful collaboration with Pelargos that helps bring Greek and Amharic versions of some our favorite books to kids in Greece. Below is a translation, thank you Michael Angelidis, from a recent article in Greece about this initiative. For those that read Greek, here is the original Did you know that Andromeda, the well-known princess from Greek Mythology – who is also a…

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