Latest Ethiopia Trip Report (September, 2009)

Tree Distribution in Acheber, Ethiopia (August, 2009)

Farmer Training in Acheber, Ethiopia (April, 2009)

EAVO Annual Report, 2008

Trip to Ethiopia (Oct 2008)

Jim and Seifu are in Ethiopia with two Americans from Lakeside church in Folsom to build water tank for the school we built.

East African Village Outreach Activity report (Apr 2008)

• Built a Kindergarten on a land given to us by the farmers. We now have 142 children attending with 3 teachers and a janitor.  Last year, we had 176, but 70+ had graduated and moved to the nearby government school.
• We tutor 8th graders in the afternoon at our KG, get them involved in sport activities.  All 43 students who sat for national exam passed as a result of our efforts!
• We added 2 more class rooms at the government school, and donated 100+ desks.
• We built  (read more ...)

Corporate Employee Brings Water, Hope to Ethiopian Villagers, McClatchy People, Personal and professional accomplishments of employees, Spring 2006

IIbssa, 47, is more than the home town boy made good. He has become his village’s benefactor. He has initiated a number of humanitarian efforts to lift his native village and the surrounding community out of poverty and suffering.  (read more...)

Before construction of the well last October, villagers such as this young boy gathered their water from this mud hole, which they shared with livestock and hyenas.

You can go home again - and bring about change, SJSU Alumni Profile Winter 2006

Acheber, 10,000 feet above sea level, is the nearest village to Kerebigne (south of Tulu Bolo) . From Acheber, Ibssa’s birthplace is accessible only by donkey, horse or a steep 45-minute hike higher into the mountains. To transport the necessary construction materials to build a water storage tank required 25 donkeys and a difficult, uphill trek for Ibssa and his team.

But the results were more than worth the effort, he says. “I will never forget seeing an eight-year-old boy collect dirty water left over from the dogs, hyenas and cattle from a small spring.”

With the new water tank, Kerebigne finally has a source of clean drinking water. But a water storage tank is only the beginning of Ibssa’s improvement plans.  (read more...)