An Ethiopian woman who works as a cleaner at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) has been rewarded after turning in two diamond rings worth QR470,000 (US$129,000) that were left behind in a bathroom at the venue.
Andnet Zelekew, a 32-year-old woman who has been working at the QNCC since 2011, received a cash award from convention center management last week for her honesty.
In a statement, QNCC General Manager Ken Jamieson said:
“I applaud and thank Ms. Zelekew for her honesty and rectitude. QNCC believes in fostering a working environment that is loyal, secure and trusting. For this reason, we believe that our employees always display exceptional integrity.
By returning the diamond rings to their grateful owner, our valued employee has displayed the traits which we as an organization, hold in the highest regard.”
The rings were lost in February, during the Doha Jewelry and Watches Exhibition.
In a statement to Doha News, Zelekew said that when she found the jewelry, the first thing she thought about “was the owner and how she would feel.”
She then called the assistant manager and turned in the rings immediately.
“Even for two minutes, I didn’t hold it in my hand, (because it still had) the price tag,” she said.
This isn’t the first time Zelekew, the first female member of custodial staff to join the QNCC, has faced such circumstances.
In her previous job at Al Mukhtar Cleaning company in Qatar, she said she found a “valuable diamond wedding ring” that the owner left in the bathroom that she also turned in.
“She was very pleased and appreciated me,” she said. Â “I believe in my life that honesty is the best policy.”
A QNCC spokesperson declined to tell Doha News how the amount of cash Zelekew was awarded.
The spokesperson added that incidents like this have occurred before at QNCC, where the staff is “honest and loyal,” but that this incident stands out due to the high value of the jewelry that was found.
Ethiopian expats
Qatar’s relationship with Ethiopia has improved in the past couple years, after a diplomatic squabble in 2008 temporarily ceased communication between the nations.
According to local publication BQ Doha, more than 21,000 Ethiopian expats were living in Qatar in 2013.
However, last year, the country temporarily banned its female nationals from working as domestic helpers here and in other GCC states over human rights concerns.
An official at the Ethiopian Embassy here previously told Doha News that the government is working to develop minimum salary standards and set working hours for Ethiopian workers, in a bid to reduce incidences of “people trafficking.”
Thoughts?
And my faith in humanity is restored.
If you watched the TV show “Game of thrones”, it would have restored your faith a long time ago.
Really? 148 dead at a Kenyan University, 200 girls still missing in Nigeria kidnapped and probably forced into marriage, Relgious crazies gaining ground in Syria and Iraq. Sunni states in the GCC massacring Shias in Yemen.
and that’s just in the last week, but thank God some rich person got her diamonds back.
A good deed is a good deed nonetheless. You undermine what this lady did just because there is plenty of evil and mayhem elsewhere in the world. God didnt create people equal and thats to create balance around the world.
So god balances out mass murder with giving back a ring. Nice God this of yours
Thats not what I said. All people cannot be equal. Simple.
Thinking “all people cannot be equal” is the base of all human cruelty.
I have to agree :I
Okay, maybe not restored, marginally less jaded and cynical perhaps?
Nice one!
That is actually amazing! I wonder how much she was rewarded….
Hats off and salute to this honest lady. Allah swt bless her.
Love to know how much she was rewarded. I hope they don’t look at her and think what is a lot of money to her or what is a lot of money in her country… I hope they did what she did and ask themselves what they would consider a fair reward for such a valuable item lost and safely returned to the owner.
They gave her overdue unpaid wages as a reward.
Why does the article focus on her nationality and why is the bottom half of the article about Ethiopian expats? Are we supposed to see people according to their nationality? Or should we remember her every time we meet an Ethiopian?
Dohanews
Exactly,, and look at the tags “Ethiopia”.Maybe the next article about a Brit should have “United Kingdom” tag. Does that ever happen? Will half of the article talk about Brits in Qatar. Heba, my teacher once told that all of us are racist to some degree, he might be right. But this is too obvious don’t you think Heba?
In fact studies have shown we are born racist and babies show what we would call racist tendancies. If you think about it, it makes sense.
Society (and family) makes us racist, you are not born a racist! Babies do not care wether you are Asian, European, African, they just want to play. That s all
It would be nice to think that but research has proven the opposite in babies. From an evolutionary point of view it makes sense as well to favour those like us and reject those that are different.
Agreed. I felt the article did not offer the readers a complete story, how are you going to talk about an Ethiopian woman and give us a breakdown on Ethiopians in Doha, but not also a breakdown of women in Doha?
I too want to know important information about the women, such as what percentage reflect their respect, how many men chase them in a day etc.
Maybe they want to show us how an “Ethiopian” is honest. Wow,, very surprising lets write an article about that and talk about the weird mix of Ethiopians and honesty.
This is a fair question, and I’m glad you asked it. We were simply trying to flesh out the article. We previously wrote about a Filipino employee who was honored at HIA for his work recovering stolen money and a Kenyan expat who donated his salary to typhoon victims.
We noticed each time that readers tended to want to know more about their communities in Qatar, which is why we included a primer at the bottom of this piece.
Because ethiopians’ loyality should be apploud
get over yourself!
Nice gesture to reward honesty –
Considering the rings still had their price tags on it, during the exhibition, perhaps the rings needed a bathroom break
hope the company that had the rings on sale returned the insurance money it might have claimed.
She said it happened twice, what if she is deliberately hiding the jewels and then “finding” it for a reward? Much safer than being caught trying to pawn it off. Smart way to make money. I would give her a reward for that if it was in fact a con act, I respect cunning cons.
So how did she get it off the owners hand at the show?
Black magic or whispered to a devil to do it.
lol….unless you’re a practising Muslim, in which case you may well actually believe that….she could be convicted and beheaded for such a crime in forward-thinking KSA.
Black magic is lethal stuff, did you not see what Tyrion did to Stannis Baratheon’s fleet? I like Tyrion, but he needs to be decapitated for practicing witchcraftery.
Hang in there, 3 more days.
And the dumb @$$ prize goes to …. Anon.
Interesting where your mind went compared to hers.
The burning question is, how many of ‘US’ would have acted in the same manner, if we were in her situation?
Deleting this for personal attack and subsequent thread. You can’t just accuse people of stealing and witchcraft with no evidence! And women often remove their jewelry in the bathroom when washing hands/making ablutions.
It was a sarcastic joke, not intended to be taken seriously. And if we are going to delete “accusations”, then you should be deleting entire threads that appear practically any time a local official/professional makes a remark of any sort…
and what actually constitues evidence of witch craft? Last time I looked it was 2015, not 1560.
Ditto
Really she is having a great heart… Appreciate on her honest…
why would anyone want to know the amount of cash she was rewarded? The focus here should be how this woman is teaching many of us a virtue that is truly rare among the mass
You are right
We want to know whether it was worth returning them or not 😉
yeah honesty is the best policy. That is the onevof the life princuples of Ethiopians. It really doesn’t matter how needy one can be.
I think people would like to this she was rewarded well and not just fobbed off with qr20 or something like that.
GOOD JOB
I hope she is very happy woman, because she how to be happy…
why some people on the comment hate that Ethiopia is mentioned on the article. Yes she is from E t h i o p i a
Would you do return if it was you who found it?Would you have overcome the temptation? especially when you are the kind of person who need money badly? This woman was a good a Christian.
MasyaAllah that ring is so ugly, I would return it too. (joking)
Hypothetical conversation between me and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
Dr. King: “I have a dream that …….one day…………. will not be judged by
the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Me: Dream On Dr. King …..