In this Social Stanford Innovation Review article, author Cameron Conaway shares his personal journey to Ethiopia where he visited our Speed School program.
Below is an extract from the article:
Asefa Tadese was a full-time cattle tender. For seven years and without a day off, he roamed the scorched earth near the border between Eritrea and the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia. His days followed the path of the sun’s rays: a light breakfast at sunrise, hours of tough labor until sunset, a meager dinner, and then bedtime. He was just a boy. In fact, he still is one.
“I’m 13 [years old]. This is my first time in school, and I will not go back to that life,” he says. Then he stares at the dirt floor as if he is watching images of those days dance across it. He looks up and flashes a shy smile, but there’s a fierce squint in his eyes: He realizes that his former life had nearly drained him of the potential to be anything other than a cattleman. “Never again,” he declares.
Tadese was able to leave that life when he received an opportunity to enroll in Speed School.
Click here to read the full article.
