Staff

Yohannes Gebregeorgis

Yohannes Gebregeorgis spent his childhood in Negelle Borena, a southern Ethiopian town about twelve hours from the capital city of Addis Ababa. Books were relatively non-existent, although U.S. Peace Corps volunteers taught literature classes in his local high school. It wasn’t until he was nineteen that a friend loaned him the first book he held in his hands outside of school -- the first book that he began to read simply for pleasure. This experience changed his life, turning him into an avid reader.

After completing primary and secondary school in his hometown, Yohannes moved to Addis Ababa to study pharmacology. While working as a pharmacist for the Ministry of Health in Gondar, he joined an organization opposing the then-ruling military dictatorship known as the Derg. Due to this affiliation, he began to be pursued by a Derg official who was known for killing his opponents. Joining the flood of Ethiopian emigrants in those years, he fled to neighboring Sudan. After spending eight months at a refugee camp is Sudan, he was granted political asylum in the United States in 1982.

When he arrived in the U.S., Yohannes found a job as a pharmacist at a hospital. While working full-time, he was also able to further his higher education, eventually earning a BA in English Literature and Journalism in 1989 from the University of Buffalo and a Masters degree in Library and Information Science in 1991 from the University of Texas. He then found work as a librarian, first at a black private college in Texas and then at various public libraries in California. Although he had originally planned to work in an academic setting, he accepted a job in the children’s department of the San Francisco Public Library. In this position, Yohannes realized that although the library had many children’s books from around the world and in many different languages, the collection did not include a single one written in any of the Ethiopian languages. Few children’s books about Ethiopia existed at all., even though, with a large Ethiopian population in the area, the demand for such books was high. Backed by grants allocated by the library, he began an extensive search. After letters to publishers in Addis Ababa were ignored and further search efforts ended in vain, Yohannes decided he must personally somehow become involved. In 1995, the idea for Ethiopia Reads was born. With the help of volunteers, the organization was recognized as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation in 1999.

As a first step, Yohannes wrote out the text of a popular Ethiopian story from his childhood, Silly Mammo, in English and Amharic, Ethiopia’s once-official language and still the one most widely used throughout the country. On a visit to Ethiopia, he found an illustrator to create accompanying artwork. Award-winning children’s author Jane Kurtz served as editor, recruited a professional children’s book author to design the book, and raised money for its publication. Ethiopia Reads began to sell copies in order to raise money to get books into the hands of Ethiopian children. Donations of children’s books in English were also solicited.

Meanwhile, Yohannes made trips back to the Ethiopia in a long effort to obtain NGO status for Ethiopia Reads there. In 2002, he decided it was time to take the major step of shipping the 15,000 books to Ethiopia, using money raised through the sale of Silly Mammo and other private donations. He also decided to move back to his home country and take up residence in Addis Ababa. After some months, he was offered a fulltime job as librarian at the International Community School of Addis Ababa. While he waited for the school year to begin, he lived on his own savings and laid the groundwork for the opening of the reading center, a job which included finding a place to rent, renovating several big tents that had been donated in the United States, building tables, building shelves, and -- most of all -- returning again and again to government offices to make his case for NGO status. When, through his persistence, NGO status was finally granted, he had to wade through a tedious and difficult process of completing the shipment of books, which had been detained in Djibouti awaiting this step. On April 5, 2003, the organization cut the ribbon, and the doors to Shola Children’s Library, the first free-access children’s library in Addis Ababa, were opened.

Many African countries speak of the importance of developing “a reading culture” as a way of ultimately dealing with issues of poverty and lack of basic human services for most of their populations. Ethiopia is no different. As somewhat of an additional challenge, Ethiopia prides itself on being a traditional society that resists change; after all, it was the only country in Africa to successfully resist colonization apart from the occupation of the country by Italy during World War II. Yohannes has given years of his life, as well as a great deal of his own money, to the dream of spreading the love of reading he acquired as a young man to today’s potential young readers in Ethiopia.

Laura Bond

Laura Bond is the director of North American Operations and Ethiopia Reads’ sole employee in the U.S. Laura works with the Board and a network of donors, both big and small, to support the work done by Ethiopia Reads’ staff in Addis Ababa and Awassa.

Laura brings to Ethiopia Reads more than ten years of experience in journalism and public relations, as well as a love of reading and creative writing. Prior to entering the non-profit realm, Laura spent six years with Westword, Denver’s premiere alternative newspaper. As the paper’s music editor, Laura created and edited cutting edge stories on art, culture and technology; as a staff writer, Laura produced thought-provoking features and investigative pieces on issues often overlooked in the mainstream media, from child welfare and mental health to sexuality, health and religion.

Laura’s work has garnered multiple state and national awards, including the 2004 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, an award bestowed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for Children and Families. Laura has also been recognized by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, ECCOS Family Center, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and the Society of Professional Journalists. Her freelance work has appeared in Rolling Stone, MTV.com and MAAM Magazine, a resource for women living with breast cancer.

This summer, Laura traveled to Ethiopia where she spent time working with children, staff and members of a library and literacy skills training program. The experience left her with a deep affection for Ethiopia’s beauty, culture and people. (Not to mention, macchiatos!) She is thrilled to be a part of Ethiopia Reads.

Ethiopian Staff