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EAFS PARTNER – YOHANNES GEBREGEORGIS
Since June 2007, Yohannes Gebregeorgis has been Global Care’s partner for constructing the Ethio-American Friendship School (EAFS) in Awassa, Ethiopia. Yohannes’s extraordinary resume of personal and professional experiences, accomplishments and honors, as well as his impeccable personal integrity, makes him the perfect partner for Global Care in Ethiopia. After relocating in the United States as an Ethiopian political refugee, Yohannes earned his Master’s degree in Library Science and obtained work as a children’s librarian at the San Francisco Public Library in 1985. However, in 1998 Yohannes’s career and life took a remarkable turn. As Yohannes contemplated the stark difference between the books available to American children and the limited or non-existent literacy opportunities available to most Ethiopian children, he decided to do something extraordinary. He founded an organization, Ethiopia Reads, to begin to fill this literacy gap. In 2003, Yohannes moved back to Ethiopia with 15,000 donated books to promote his literacy work through Ethiopia Reads. Under Yohannes’s leadership, Ethiopia Reads has opened ten free public libraries and conducts ongoing training for Ethiopian librarians. Yohannes also started Ethiopia’s first Donkey Mobile Library to reach rural Ethiopian communities and has written and published books in Amharic and English. Through his pioneering efforts, Yohannes has opened the door of literacy to tens of thousands of Ethiopian children. For his efforts, commitment and success in promoting literacy in Ethiopia, Yohannes was selected as a CNN Top Ten Hero in 2008.
In addition to his ongoing work with Ethiopia Reads, Yohannes founded the Ethio-American Friendship School in 2005 in Awassa to provide an outstanding secular education to vulnerable and impoverished Ethiopian children. Global Care’s partnership with Yohannes and EAFS began in 2007 and has resulted in the construction of 12 classrooms accom-modating 220 students from Pre-K to Grade 8. Our goal is to sponsor and construct enough additional rooms to make EAFS a Pre-K to Grade 12 school.
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