About - Safe Light Initiative

Do You Know

ABOUT us

ከአዕምሮ ድህነት ተላቆ፣ በልብ ስብዕናው አድጎ ውስጡ ያለውን አቅምና ችሎታ አውጥቶ መጠቀም የሚችል አዲስ ትውልድ ተፈጥሮ ማየት።

Our Mission

Our mission is to equip young leaders and the community with problem-solving mindsets, by providing a variety of workshops and training sessions, character-sets, by offering them mentorship programs, volunteering, and other humanitarian activities, skill-sets, by delivering them continuous activities and engagements that develop soft and hard skills

Our Vision

To see a new generation released from the limiting shackles of cognitive poverty empowered to lead and transform the nation. Backed by the right attitude, integrity, creativity, excellence, responsibility, and discipline

Background and History

It all started in a small town, surrounded by dense forests, situated in south-western Ethiopia called Mizan Teferi, Bench Maji Zone. A land full of lush forests, fertile lands, beautiful scenery, a variety of fruits, vegetables and organic coffee – drank & admired around the world. The local population depends almost entirely on agricultural produce but still lacks access to infrastructures & the right kind of education. It’s a place where tribal conflict has been prevalent & has become the norm over the past few years.
13-year-old girl Aster, was the daughter of a highly respected man who had four wives. She grew up in Mizan Teferi & didn’t have access to neither quality education nor opportunities for a better life. But most of all, she didn’t have the power to make her own decisions or options to choose from. Despite the lack of exposure to the outer world & the opportunities it presented, she always used to look at the students in the Mizan Tepi University campus & envy them. Aster was inspired by how the students talked, how they dressed & even how they spent time when enjoying themselves. As time went by she really began bonding with the students & they started to see her as their little sister. She had hopes of one day being like them, hopes of being able to go to college & feel some pride.

One day, Aster didn’t show up to hang out with the students, as was the usual, and everyone started wondering where she was. So some of the students decided to go and ask her mom where she was. Her mother was heart-broken, she replied in a breaking soft voice filled with pain and her eyes filled with tears, “Aster was given away. Her dad sold her to someone as a wife” Everyone was simply speechless and didn’t even say a word for a while. But one of the students was so furious and was eager to know how much a human being was worth for the community. “He negotiated & agreed to sell her for 10,000 birr and she is with her new husband”, was the response he got. The student was so surprised by how little value is given to a human being & had a major shift in paradigm.
Her so-called father just cut her dream of being like these college students one day, then & there. He killed her dream of being somebody tomorrow & having a future. He was ironically one of the few respected leaders of the community who had a coffee farm and who was making a lot of money out of the business but was still living in mental poverty and his heart was cruel enough to sell his daughter to a stranger for such little money.

After having such an experience, it was unbearable to see & live in an environment where fathers sell their daughters and believe it is right, an environment where dreams can be killed so early on by a single person’s decision. This led to the establishment of Safe Light, after our founder, Amb. Sileshi “Sals” Umer had the chance to see how grave the situation really is in Ethiopia, and most of the world for that matter.

Although it stems from an individual’s personal experience, since then the story has touched many & we all have embarked on a journey together. It is mandatory to work on the collective mind of the community, to inspire them, to empower them with the best opportunities and problem solving knowledge and wisdom and to transform their ideas into solutions to make a better life for themselves. We know that money is not the means to overcome poverty, but a transformed, cultivated and developed mind can do wonders.

As a nation, we have enough resources but we don’t have the wisdom to use them to the best we can. We are wealthy yet we are still somehow poor & dependent on others. When the mind is locked, everything else holds us back and there will be no progress made.
That’s why Safe Light was established. To save all the dreamers like Aster, to love & accept them, to guide & lead them towards a better future.