ABOUT US
One Day Seyoum (ODS) is a community-led human rights organisation focused on Eritrea and Eritrean refugees. We organise campaigns and publish research to push for change. We produce media, art and events to raise awareness about the issues we work on. We run support programmes helping Eritrean refugees with asylum-related issues, mental health and professional development. We organise capacity building initiatives to increase the strength of the movement.
A decade since its founding, ODS is one of the most prominent Eritrean human rights organisations in exile. We have over 500 members and combine virtual and in-person activities to achieve impact. Our membership mostly comprises of young people and are a mix of Eritrea and diaspora-born Eritreans, and allies. ODS focuses heavily on community engagement and has provided a unique space for people across the movement to meet, learn and get involved.
We are regularly invited to speak and collaborate by institutions like the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and news organisations like CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.
OUR VISION
A future where human rights are enjoyed by all Eritreans and survivors receive the necessary support to heal and thrive.
Our founder, Vanessa Tsehaye, was born in Sweden where she grew up hearing stories about her home country Eritrea. When she was five years old, she was told that her uncle Seyoum Tsehaye had been imprisoned without trial in Eritrea. The older she got, the more she learned about her uncle’s imprisonment and how it was connected to a larger human rights crisis in Eritrea.
In 2013, when Vanessa was sixteen years old, she started One Day Seyoum at her high school. She was tired of seeing how much her country was suffering and how little was being done about it. She started the organisation, named after her uncle, to continue his mission to speak up for the Eritrean people. One Day Seyoum referes to the dream that one day, Seyoum would be free and that one day, the Eritrea that he fought for would become reality.
The organisation first started spreading into more high schools in Sweden and then ultimately to schools and communities all over the world.
