Lina Ayenew

organization overview

Education for Ethiopia’s mission is to make education digitally available for Ethiopian students in local languages. By recruiting gifted teachers and creating compelling content, Education for Ethiopia aims to build the confidence of students nationwide and break the language barrier in science.
With Saquama – a student-facing digital learning platform for K-12 students — Education for Ethiopia collaborates with the Ministry of Education and other entities to make content available to schools both online and offline. Increasing availability is especially important for underserved areas where access to high quality instruction is not guaranteed.

Personal Bio

Lina Ayenew is the founder of Education for Ethiopia, an organization that brings digital education to Ethiopian students in local languages. Her journey in education began when she wrote the world’s first book to teach Mandarin Chinese to Amharic speakers. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Amharic is Lina’s first language, andshe wrote the book after living in China for several years. Previously, Lina wrote an acclaimed book titled, “The Complete Beginner’s Guide to China-Africa Relations,” which is based on five years of documenting China’s role in Africa’s economic development.

Through the Yale-China Fellowship, Lina taught as a junior professor of public health at Xiangya Medical School. She served on the Yale-China Association board of trustees education committee for six years. Lina’s work has been featured in leading media including the Financial Times and Le Monde. She received her undergraduate degree and master of public health from Yale University and her master of business administration from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing.