About Us

In October 2019, the organization’s founder traveled to Ethiopia to visit a village called Gulo in the Gurage zone province of Shoa. He went there to commemorate his late father’s seventh year of passing and attend the last funeral rites as an Orthodox Christian at the nearby church where his father was buried. After the church service, the founder and his family hosted a luncheon at his father’s home for the community members, including teachers and administrators from the nearby Genet Mariam Elementary School.

Genet Mariam Elementary School is a primary day school built over ten years ago by World Vision, a non-governmental organization supported by Christians worldwide. The school is located near the Gulo village. The founder’s late father and other elders from the community requested World Vision to build the school. With the help of his father, who donated a part of his land for the building, World Vision built the school. It consists of three classrooms for Grades 1 to 3. Once the construction was complete, World Vision returned the school to the community to administer. The Department of Education for the Gurage Zone allocated teachers and classroom materials for the children. World Vision suggested that the community should collect money and extend the classes to Grade 6. However, due to the lack of available resources, the community could only collect 200 Ethiopian Birr (7.00 USD) annually per family. With the small contributions they received, it took the community over ten years to collect enough money to build additional school infrastructure, including a new office for teachers and a new classroom for Grade 4.. During a visit to the school, the founder of an organization learned that the extended building was below standard compared to the local standard for schooling. The school administrators and teachers who attended the church service shared their immediate and urgent needs for the elementary school with him. They knew that the organization’s founder resided in the United States and hoped he could help. The administrators and teachers explained that they could not secure any assistance to build Grades 5 and 6, and it would take over 18 years to collect the necessary funds. The children have to walk and run 10 miles daily to and from their homes to attend the nearest primary school. This strenuous burden causes most children to stop attending school after the 4th grade due to the long distance they must endure traveling.

After hearing the teachers’ request, the founder was moved and decided to discuss the matter with his siblings who live in Ethiopia and his family here in the US. They all encouraged him to fund the construction of two additional classroom buildings for Grades 5 and 6. As a result, the Genanaw Foundation was established by the founder, initially funded from his savings, and began allocating funds to build the Genet Marian Primary School extension.

After constructing grades 5 and 6 and handing over the extended school to the community, our organization continued to work towards benefiting the school and the community. We acquired a power transmission transformer for the school and community to access electricity. Furthermore, we installed two 1500-gallon water tanks with motors to pump water from an underground well. The well was drilled with assistance from World Vision International. Additionally, we provided the children and the school with the necessary learning materials and protective kits for the girls. You can find more information about our achievements in the “What We Do”  and our activities in “Program Services” pages.