Our evening cocktail social was held in the Zoom Cafe/ Bar. The meeting featured a presentation by Rediate Kologek, a Lafayette College student and native of Ethiopia. She is majoring in International Affairs and with a minor in Spanish. After College, she hopes to work with the World Bank or possibly US AID. Her native village of Hidi is extremely poor. Her mother placed her for adoption in an attempt to provide her daughter with a chance at a better life. Rediate wound up in Tennesee, then Virginia, and her family now lives in Washington DC. She found herself questioning the reason for her existence. She pleaded with God and asked God to “use me”. She realized that her purpose in life was to give back to Hidi, where she was bom. She remembered the long walks for water and considered building a well, but she didn’t know where to begin. She was introduced to the Leam Serve organization and they suggested she start small and learn how to do projects. She tried collecting school supplies and ultimately developed a backpack project. Rediate ended up distributing 575 backpacks to students at Hidi Primary School in the summer of 2023. Returning to Ethiopia, she was happy to reunite with her biological family but disheartened by the lack of progress in her village. The poverty is relentless. The farmers would gather after work around a precious lantern because it was the only source of light. She decided to focus her energy on bringing some electricity to her village through the use of solar panels. At Lafayette she discovered the Dyer Center that fosters and sustains a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that increases the creative capacity of Lafayette students to lead and inspire change. The resources at the Dyer Center enabled her to complete a project installing six solar panels in houses in Hidi. The effects of the project are currently being evaluated. Rediate’s research suggests that 250 solar pa nels could bring some electricity to the entire village at a cost of approximately $22,500. Her gofundme account to Bring Light to Hidi Village has raised nearly $1,500.
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