U.S. Ambassador Aurelia Brazeal hosted last week a group of young women from New Jersey, U.S.A., who visited Ethiopia from June 27 to July 5 to conduct a basketball training camp for Ethiopian young women. They were visiting as part of a program to promote cross-cultural understanding between American and African high school students through sports.

In addition to several hours of basketball training, the young women participated each day in professional development activities to promote awareness of each other's culture, leaderships kills, and team-building. The young women were accompanied by a team of teachers, professional development staff and a head coach. The Ethiopian young women represented high schools in Addis Ababa.

The program is called "F3B" to denote the "three female ballers" who were the program's first participants. The program began six years ago when three high school students and a college student coach conducted a basketball camp in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia, and now in Ethiopia.

The exchange in Ethiopia is the result of an informal contact between the program organizers and an Ethiopian employee of Lucent Technologies in new Jersey. Lucent Technologies is one of several corporate sponsors who support the program, along with funds raised by American high school students. n