Children’s author Yohannes Gebregeorgis, founder of Ethiopia Reads and a candidate for CNN’s Hero of the Year Award for 2008, spoke at Minneapolis Central Library recently. 

Yohannes came to the U.S. in 1983 as a political refugee, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, worked as a children’s librarian, then returned to his native Ethiopia to focus on children’s literacy.  In a country with a 30% illiteracy rate, he has opened children’s libraries and founded Ethiopia Reads to advocate for improved literacy, build additional libraries, and publish children’s books.
Growing up in rural Ethiopia with very little access to books, Gebregeorgis was 19 years old the first time he picked up a book for pleasure. This experience went on to shape his life as a literacy advocate, children’s book author, and co-founder of Ethiopia Reads.
He worked also as a hospital pharmacist and continued pursuing his education, earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in journalism and English literature and a Master’s degree in library science.
Later, as a children’s librarian at the San Francisco Public Library, Gebregeorgis realized there were few books published in local Ethiopian languages.  So he wrote “Silly Mammo,” the first bilingual Amharic-English children’s book.

In 2002, Gebregeorgis left his job in San Francisco and returned to Ethiopia.  With 15,000 books donated by the San Francisco Children’s Library, he opened a children’s library on the first floor of his Addis Ababa home.  The library was so deluged by children that it soon required the addition of two large tents.

Ethiopia Reads builds libraries and also has a popular donkey-powered mobile library that takes books from village to village. The organization also publishes children’s books in local Ethiopian languages and sends shipments of donated books from the United States to Ethiopia.  http://www.ethiopiareads.org/
Gebregeorgis was recently honored as a CNN Hero of the Week, which recognized his work to bring positive global change by empowering children through education. The video can be viewed here:  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/30/heroes.ethiopia/index.html.