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Mesfin Atlaye-Overseas Volunteer
Awasa-Ethiopia
My name is Mesfin Atlaye. I'm an Ethiopian national, a Canadian citizen, academic, and a visionary. I live with my wife and five children in London, Ontario. Although it has always been my desire to return to Ethiopia and contribute to the social and economic development of my homeland, the idea of building a school in Awassa was born during my visit in 2007. I had observed a drastic decline in education quality, an alarming number of lower grade dropouts, and a high level of brain drain in the country.
I have seen a number of school aged children roaming around the cities aimlessly when they were supposed to be at school- young boys and girls, most of them under the age of ten, begging the passerby for pennies to feed themselves. According to some of them, they beg on the street to buy bread for their siblings. Their play ground was the underground drainage holes where the city filth flows.
I had the opportunity to talk with many of them and I was disturbed by the fact that most of these children were unable to go to school simply because that opportunity did not present itself to them. Some of them claim to have no parents. Some are runaways from abusive care givers. Yet others, either their parents could not afford to pay the little registration fee at the public school or to buy for them the basic writing materials- so they quit school.
Mesfin Atlaye
Project Lead Member
Project Lead Member
Overseas Volunteer Support!
Donate Now
Donate Monthly
Cheques can be mailed to Devxchange
PO Box 224 Barrie, ON L4M 4T2
US donations for tax deductible receipts.
Checks should be made out and mailed to
Cornerstone Fellowship Church
66 Waverley Drive, Suite 630
Fredrick, MD 21702
Designate- "Devx Volunteer Mesfin Atlaye"
Checks should be made out and mailed to
Cornerstone Fellowship Church
66 Waverley Drive, Suite 630
Fredrick, MD 21702
Designate- "Devx Volunteer Mesfin Atlaye"
Street Kids of Ethiopia
Panafric International Academy (PIA) is a humble response to that need. I'm part of a group of Christian educators and other
professionals, organized to give quality education to those who cannot dream it. Our goal is to build a (K-12) progressive school in
Awassa (the capital of Southern Ethiopia) that will accommodate between 900-1300 children. This will be a school for all children
without discriminating against them through ethnic, religious, economic or other labels. PIA will use the national curriculum as its
base. All fulltime teaching and administration staff will be Ethiopian nationals- carefully recruited and retrained according to the
PIA policy and principles. We will have a wide volunteer program where educators and people with various skills from Canada and
elsewhere will volunteer their time to train and share their expertise with our school community. That is the vision and the mission.
Mesfin is planning to leave for Ethiopia in October and do the necessary ground work for starting the school. Please support him in this endeavour. We will accept donations for the school once the necessary permissions have been received but in the meantime we are accepting donations to help with the startup costs and ground work of Mesfin.
Mesfin is planning to leave for Ethiopia in October and do the necessary ground work for starting the school. Please support him in this endeavour. We will accept donations for the school once the necessary permissions have been received but in the meantime we are accepting donations to help with the startup costs and ground work of Mesfin.