Almost 21 years after he emigrated from Ethiopia to the United States, Solomon Desalegn of Stafford County returned to his neighborhood in the eastern African country.
He saw new buildings and roads in the capital city of Addis Ababa, where he was born and raised, and thought, “Wow, this is a great improvement.” Then, he visited his old high school, which had a new shell on the outside, but few changes had been made on the inside since he’d been a student there.
Teachers were still instructing “the old-fashioned way, standing in front of the board, writing,” he recalled.
There were no computers in the classroom and certainly no labs where students could learn keyboarding. In colleges he visited, professors taught computer theory and demonstrated the skills on a computer, but the students didn’t get the chance to try it out themselves.
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Meanwhile, his oldest son had been using computer apps like Google Earth since he was 6. His parents would tell him a relative’s location and the boy would pinpoint their home on the map.
Desalegn realized the only difference between his three sons and other children in the Horn of Africa was the address of their birth.
It was a life-changing moment for the Stafford man, now 50.
“You go to those elementary schools and you see all those kids have no clue whatsoever what’s out there. It’s heartbreaking and it’s difficult to express in words the emotions you feel,” he said, tears forming in his eyes.
Desalegn came back to the U.S., determined to make a difference. Between his full-time work for the Marine Corps, where he’s an electrical engineer who tests and evaluates systems, his quest to earn his doctorate degree and his family obligations to his wife and three teens, Desalegn formed the nonprofit, Educate Africa.
Last month, the group shipped 55 laptops to Wollo University, one of the institutions looted during the recent war between the government and rebel forces. Both Educate Africa and university officials had to complete mounds of paperwork to get the government to waive the typical customs fees and allow the donation.
A relative, Yonhatan Goitom, helped the nonprofit register as a charitable organization in Ethiopia after it got the proper paperwork in the U.S.
Fredericksburg Personal Computer Users Group also assisted by providing a $5,000 grant to help purchase the computers, replace missing or damaged hard drives or memory and ship them to East Africa. Desalegn paid the other $2,000 out of his own pocket.
FPCUG board member Frank Fota helped download new operating systems, when needed, and has served as Educate Africa’s only volunteer, other than Desalegn, for about eight months.
The two know from their work experience that federal and local governments, as well as school systems and universities, tend to replace their computers every three years and there aren’t many places that recycle electronics. Equipment often is auctioned and sold in bulk, and Desalegn and Fota have acquired dozens of computers that way.
“But we’re not awash with cash donations, so we’re just trying to get the word out,” Fota said.
He and Desalegn are eager to partner with other nonprofits, businesses or individuals who have the time, talent and resources to take equipment possibly headed for the landfill, and make it part of a “necessary life-changing educational experience” in Ethiopia and eventually other African countries, according to the website educateafricaweb.org.
If there’s anyone who could be the poster child for the difference education can make, it’s Desalegn.
“Being driven comes with the lifestyle” of growing up in a third-world country, he said. “Everybody understood the value of education and they worked hard for it.”
His father, who worked for a government logistics company, made it clear that Desalegn’s sole purpose in life, while under his roof, was to focus on his studies. While others brought their sons into family businesses, Desalegn was motivated to pursue his education.
He finished high school and had a couple years of college in Ethiopia where he also was trained as an aircraft technician and worked for two years. He was 23 when his immigration papers were approved and he used his training to apply for a Federal Aviation Administration license to work on commercial aircraft.
Desalegn serviced airplanes in Pennsylvania for two years, then did the same in Arizona and Minnesota until Delta Airlines transferred him to Washington.
Meanwhile, he resumed his studies in the United States. While holding down various jobs, he earned his engineering degree from George Mason University, his master’s in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University and is working on his doctorate from Liberty University.
“I’m telling you this to give you a picture of the drive and the value of education that we were told when we were kids,” he said. “It still impacts in some form or fashion.”
Desalegn has about 50 desktop computers ready to be shipped overseas and he knows exactly where they’ll go. He was in Ethiopia last month when the first shipment arrived and he talked to officials at his old high school, which has become Tegbareid Polytechnic College. There are about 1,600 students there in eight different departments, and Desalegn and the dean agreed the nonprofit would provide at least 50 computers to each section.
“There are so many colleges, so many high schools, so many middle schools that would die to get these computers,” Desalegn said. “I have made a promise to him that he will get his computers, but I did not promise on the time.”
More information about Educate Africa’s mission is available at its website, educateafricaweb.org.
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