Meet Bethlehem: Ambassador for World Literacy Foundation (Wlf) & Tunza Eco-Generation

Bethlehem Tesfu Estifanos

''Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things.''

Hi! Please tell us who you are and what you do?

Sure! I’m Bethlehem Tesfu Estifanos. A young African woman in Ethiopia who is currently studying medical public health at Unity University. As my hobbies are ART, music, reading books, meeting new people, and more. Since I mentioned books I just finished reading for the 4th time “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less “by Greg McKeown which is an amazing book I will recommend.

 

I'm passionate about the socio-economic development of vulnerable populations, SDG, community service helping others specifically street children, and conflict-related sexual violence. I'm contributing my skills and knowledge through volunteerism in socio-economic development and peacebuilding. My background experience has exposed me to the vulnerability element of youth in situations of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, drugs and substance abuse, and the threat they pose to peace and security; where I strive to provide sustainable avenues for socio-economic empowerment and peace in counties and the world. 

 

Please briefly describe your current role and professional interests?

I’m currently an Ambassador for WORLD LITERACY FOUNDATION (WLF)  whereas an ambassador my vision is to envision a world in which every one of us can read and write, in which there is free access to education for all.  Inside the process, I was trained to develop their leadership and advocacy skills. Where I also was exposed to learn about literacy as a human right and support the WLF literacy project in Colombia, 

I’m also an Ambassador at TUNZA ECO-GENERATION, where I mainly focus on climate and environmental change in Ethiopia. I must write an article about how Ethiopia is doing in that area and advocate for it on Y2Y and One Health Ethiopia 

I'm also passionate about gender equality and women’s empowerment, a lined to my interest I am working as the Vice President at GIRL UP ADDIS ABABA, which focus on women and trying to help and empower them. I also participate at ROTARACT at ROTARACT CLUB OF ATRONS as project officer where the main aim is how the youth can serve the community and YICMUN brand ambassador and content writer, which I am also a member of impact youth sustainability (IYS) and budget and finance director, YOUTH TO YOUTH and EYDPA member.  In general, I am focused and interested in sustainable developmental goals (SDG), which I am also focusing on drugs and substance abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, rehabilitation, and economic empowerment.

Because I believe that Ethiopia needs the youth in that area and it is just like what Arthur C. Clarke said:

 "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."

               So I believe if we all came together to go beyond our impossible, we will be unstoppable.

 

What does a typical day look like for you?             

Well to tell the truth my day starts with me hitting the snooze button at 4:00 AM, this will continue like that for the coming 30min. then I take like 30 min shower then feeds my cat in which impossible for me to forget since he makes sure to remind me from the moment he lay his eyes on me since because of COVID-19 my lifestyle has completely changed in which I don’t use to do things like go to class and I can’t meet most of my friends because of the current issue so I try to be online on telegram the whole day because that is where my friends are and I try to be there for them as much as I can, and all so after I go back to my room around 6:30 -8:00 I am checking emails and schedules, reading news or books and doing tasks that have to be done.

 

From 8:00- 10:30, I usually do the house cores than from 11:00 AM-5:00 PM, I will be online working which I have a meeting after a meeting, there is someone that calls you for a task that is few days deadline, also there is a research I am planning to work on so I need to talk to my mentors and do more digging about and let us not forget I am still 3rd-year public health student so I will be studying too.  From 5:30- 7:10 is where I will be with my family also it is near dinner time. From 7:20 PM-8:00 PM is my favorite time where I get to be alone with my thought then from 8:00 PM-9:00 pm I will be checking my tasks for tomorrow and all then I get 1 hour before bed in which I spent with Netflix. So this is what a normal day looks like for me.

 

What is your favorite part of the job?

I don’t have dislike or likes in my job, but there are these parts that make you love it even more and for me is that I got to meet a lot of people from my country to a global level and that thought me the art of networking. For me whenever I sign up for a job or project I ask if this going to help someone?  

Martin Luther King once said:

               “Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service”

And for me when the service I give and the significance I bring in to it, which is lasting and that is when success follows. So I always add significance to the job that I sign up and that line us to my calling, which my favorite is the job itself.

Bethlehem Tesfu Estifanos  on Youth at Heart Event

What can be done as a student to impact your profession/your country at large?

               

As a student or professional there is a lot to be done. Public health is a wide field and to tell the truth, I knew more about it when I start to engage with it more, we live in a developing county where our population needs help in every direction possible. As this human, we all look for validation and the same goes for students at universities too, most of us wait for validation from our universities that tell we are capable to help or work on the profession we are working on and we don’t need that to help our country. Like we might not be able to do the task we want because of the need for validation but one course in a class is enough to make a certain change, public health is a field for people who care about the greater good of human beings.

 

Millions of people are alive today thanks to a handful of public health initiatives, such as vaccination programs, motor vehicle safety laws, restrictions on the use of tobacco, family planning, and clean air and water standards. The field of public health is constantly evolving in response to the needs of communities and populations around the world. A public health professional is important because public health initiatives affect people every day in every part of the world. As a student, we can address broad issues that can affect the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities, populations, and societies—both now, and for generations to come.

 

In the process of learning public health or any medical field, you get the knowledge that can change the lifestyle and medical awareness of the community which is one of the problems our county is facing. There are young people out there who are making a change with what they got and if we all do the same I think we will win over poverty since the majority of the population is young people. I see being a student in any field is an opportunity, not a limitation.

               

What do you think that the role of students in your respective fields/any other would be to impact their dream as a student?               

I advise is to find your calling? Your purpose? Because first, you need to know who you are and what you want, we all must have some kind of vision in our life in which a direction we choose to go, and if there is someone who doesn’t know that, then the first task is to find that out.

 

I don’t know what field the person who is reading this might be but to impact your dream is to a line your calling to your profession and if you don’t you will hate your field in which you may feel it is too late to change it because you came so far and start living with regret, and at the end, you will miserable and depressed, for me what I wanted was to fulfill my calling and the greatest expression of myself. I am still in the process of that.

When I ask most of my friends or anyone my age what their dream or passion, they tell me that it is to become rich in the field they got themselves into. There is something Gary Vaynerchuk said:

               “There is nothing wrong by chasing money; I just think it is the quickest ways not get it”

So all I want to say is that go out there and do your dream then all the success and satisfaction will follow. But remember just because you are in medical or any field doesn’t mean that is all you get to be, you can be whatever you believe and want to be.

 

What is the most challenging part of your job?          

It is the fact that most are online with a team, it just makes it harder to manage and see the job being done. But this pandemic affected us all and we have to deal with it.

 

Do you have any tips for achieving a good work-life balance?              

Is to live “A” straight a life. What I mean by that is don’t give your time to something you don’t feel like is important.  In the book The Essentialism there is this project list and it taught me to create a list of everything I am doing, then rate those items 1- 10 in terms of importance (not to be mistaken with priority). Once I’ve done this, I get rid of everything which is below nine as soon as possible. Delete, delegate, or finish tasks I must accomplish as soon as I can. Then when new commitments present themselves, keep applying this method going forward; say "no" to anything that I rate below a nine. And knowing this helped me get a great work-life balance but I am now applying it to my personal life as well and I hope it does for all of you too. 

 

How do public health professionals currently help to drive sustainability?               

Sustainability capacity is a critical element of a public health program. If a program does not have sustainability capacity, it can waste money and resources, damage trust between the program and community, and maybe limited in its ability to achieve its public health goals. And public health used to be work and currently working on such as vaccination programs, motor vehicle safety laws, restrictions on the use of tobacco, family planning, and clean air and water standards to drive sustainability.

               

What do you feel are the major opportunities to drive sustainability in the public health sector?               

We are building communities in ways that are unsustainable from many aspects. Not only does development create urban sprawl, impact land use, and fuel consumption, we can identify negative health consequences related to these development trends. For example Obesity, Economic Segregation, our impact on climate change and so on.

                

Public health is directly tied to the human ecosystem that we create through our unsustainable activities. The deterioration of public health on this planet is perhaps the most important consequence of our own unsustainable choices. Without good public health outcomes, human life on this planet is threatened and ultimately our actions could cause significant changes in human health, well-being, and longevity. It is not the earth that is at stake – it is humanity.

               

And the beauty of public health or any medical field is that you don’t have to wait for the patent in health sectors, it is you going to the patient and community and that is a great opportunity to give awareness. 

 

What are your top tips for public health professionals wishing to take the first steps to drive sustainability in their roles?             

My idea for this is to go out to the community, learn and engage in sustainable developmental goals (SDG) movements, and try to give awareness and solve the problems of the country as much as possible.

 

If you could wave a magic wand and make one improvement to drive the sustainability impact of the public health profession, what would it be?              

I don’t personally believe that magic and solve all our problems but I will wish for more love on earth. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things. 

               “The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.” - Helen Keller

Author

Beyond Student for Change Initiative