Mel Tewahade, producer of the Point Four documentary series, pictured at Oklahoma State University's Point Four Room. (Courtesy photo)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Tuesday, November 24th, 2015
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur Mel Tewahade was in Washington, D.C. this week for a private screening of his documentary series, Point Four.
The U.S. government program Point Four, which was eventually replaced by the current United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was a foreign policy initiative launched during the era of President Truman. Mel points out that in the 1950′s and 60′s the program helped establish Ethiopia’s first agricultural high school in Jimma, known as the Jimma Agricultural and Technical School (JATS), and later the Harar and Debre Brehan Teacher Training Institutes as well as the Alemaya Agricultural College (now Haramaya University).
Point Four also assisted in setting up the Ethiopian Highway Authority and Malaria Control Agency. USAID still funds many programs there, including projects related to population control, tuberculosis prevention, family planning, reproductive health, newborn care, water sanitation, primary education, teacher training, scholarship for young girls, and strengthening good governance.
In the following interview with Tadias conducted over the phone on Monday morning Mel, who resides in Denver, Colorado, discusses the screening of his Point Four documentary.
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