As we work to build wells and ‪#‎ChangeLives‬, Water to Thrive is fortunate to employ Gashaw Semeneh, our Ethiopia Project Manager. For the last two years, Gashaw has brought a wealth of experience and a compassionate heart to our in-country work, and has played an instrumental role in the progress we’ve seen in identifying and completing water projects.

Here Gashaw introduces himself in his own words:

I was born and raised in Addis Ababa. My father was a famous photographer and had a chance to serve both Emperor Haile Selassie I and later the socialist regime, taking wonderful shots for four decades. Being raised in this kind of family, taking photo shots and recording video using professional cameras were my hobbies while I was in secondary school and even in University.

After I studied Geology and joined a private water well drilling firm in 2002, a life-changing moment happened in my life. I started to realize the scarcity and unavailability of safe drinking water in rural Ethiopia. Furthermore, it was vivid that the burden was more on the women who travel in some places a half-day or more to fetch water from an unprotected water source, exposed to rape and abduction. In addition, schoolgirls miss class for fetching water and helping their mothers, and so are found to be poor in school performance.

From that time on, for more than 10 years, I have had chances to work for many private water construction companies and local and International NGOs. Then another life-changing moment happened in my life in Spring 2014, which was joining Water to Thrive. 

I am now the W2T project manager based in Ethiopia, to oversee site selections and the design and construction qualities of spring development, hand-dug wells, shallow boreholes, and pipeline expansion projects built by W2T local implementing partners in East Africa. Furthermore, to ensure the sustainability of the projects, I give trainings to the local partner staffs, community members, and local leaders.

Currently, I am managing the huge project in Ambo, 126 kilometers west of Addis Ababa. When it is finished, it will have the capacity to provide nearly 500 hundred school children with safe water, with gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive pit latrines, and 1100-plus rural communities will have safe water with CLTS and operation and maintenance issue trainings.

 

As we work to build wells and ‪#‎ChangeLives‬, Water to Thrive is fortunate to employ Gashaw Semeneh, our Ethiopia Project Manager. For the last two years, Gashaw has brought a wealth of experience and a compassionate heart to our in-country work, and has played an instrumental role in the progress we’ve seen in identifying and completing water projects.

Here Gashaw introduces himself in his own words:

I was born and raised in Addis Ababa. My father was a famous photographer and had a chance to serve both Emperor Haile Selassie I and later the socialist regime, taking wonderful shots for four decades. Being raised in this kind of family, taking photo shots and recording video using professional cameras were my hobbies while I was in secondary school and even in University.

After I studied Geology and joined a private water well drilling firm in 2002, a life-changing moment happened in my life. I started to realize the scarcity and unavailability of safe drinking water in rural Ethiopia. Furthermore, it was vivid that the burden was more on the women who travel in some places a half-day or more to fetch water from an unprotected water source, exposed to rape and abduction. In addition, schoolgirls miss class for fetching water and helping their mothers, and so are found to be poor in school performance.

From that time on, for more than 10 years, I have had chances to work for many private water construction companies and local and International NGOs. Then another life-changing moment happened in my life in Spring 2014, which was joining Water to Thrive. 

I am now the W2T project manager based in Ethiopia, to oversee site selections and the design and construction qualities of spring development, hand-dug wells, shallow boreholes, and pipeline expansion projects built by W2T local implementing partners in East Africa. Furthermore, to ensure the sustainability of the projects, I give trainings to the local partner staffs, community members, and local leaders.

Currently, I am managing the huge project in Ambo, 126 kilometers west of Addis Ababa. When it is finished, it will have the capacity to provide nearly 500 hundred school children with safe water, with gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive pit latrines, and 1100-plus rural communities will have safe water with CLTS and operation and maintenance issue trainings.