Befecadu Adeye

Adeye visited CIE in June 2010 where she sparked a reunion of the old Ethiopian network at CIE - Ron Bell, Ash Hartwell and David Schimmel. She was accompanied by her daughter who had just gotten her Ph.D. in astro-physics.

 

I returned home to Ethiopia after 3 years in the US in 1974 and contrary to everyone’s expectation was immediately employed by the Ministry of Education as a secondary school teacher in Hossana, a small town around 200 kms south of Addis Ababa. I then spent five years at the Mass Media Agency in the MoE. After that I was promoted to the planning section of the MoE where I spent an additional 6 years.  Finally after 18 years, with the change in government, I left the government and joined the private sector, working first for UNDP and then SIDA.

 

I retired from the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency of the Government of Sweden based in their embassy in Addis in March 2009. I was there for 14 years as a Senior Programme Officer for the education, health/HIV/AIDS and a big support to the Civil Society sector in Ethiopia. I loved and enjoyed all my years there. I took some time off to laze around but my colleagues wouldn't let me - so I did some freelancing for a small NGO dealing with children and community development. They asked me to develop a' learning strategy' for their organization. It was (as they say 'kind of Greek to me') as learning I thought was all that one did in school. To my astonishment there is a new school of thought that focuses on learning as a tool to look into the operation and improvement of an organization. It is mostly applied to businesses to improve profitability but some organizations in the UK are applying it to civil society organizations.

 

Anyway, it's been an experience and ’learning’ for me as well. I did that for around 10 months. Now I'm done with that and taking it easy and 'teaching' myself on how 'to be retired'.  Not for too long though as I go back home at the end of July and will see what else there is for me to do. [6-10]

 

Adeye sent an update in 2021:

I am a board member of two NGOs and take quite an active role in those. One deals with children & community development and the other is a women’s micro-credit association. I enjoy the involvement. Other than that, I’ve been taking my retirement  with each day deciding for itself. I spend time with family members, (there usually is some kind of social task to be handled.) I walk around (exercising) and just spend time at home. My major enjoyment is reading and watching movies [12-21]

 

 

Email: befecaduadeyem@yahoo.com

 

Degree: 
M.Ed.
Entrance Year: 
Graduation Year: 
5-year span: 
Status: 
CIE Graduate