I was born and grew up in Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia. After I completed my high school and preparatory school, I decided to learn Anthropology as I have been well informed about the subject matter before I joined University. I got my BA degree at Mekelle University and my research was on socio-cultural perspectives and livelihood of commercial sex workers in Mekelle. During my study, I was able to understand the social system, relations and people’s way of life through ethnographic field work. When I was an MA student, I was working on an assessment for a project on social organization of smallholder dairy farming in a nearby village. This encouraged me to study changing socio-cultural values and practices among smallholder dairy farmers for my MA thesis. Since then, I have found out that I am very passionate about fieldwork and spending time with people who have strong interactions with their social environment. This subsequently inspired me to conduct further research.
After my MA, I was engaged in a research project on the reproductive health of adolescents and youths that shifted my area of interest into Medical Anthropology. I worked as a researcher and stayed two months in the field for data collection. People’s awareness on sexual reproductive health and the health seeking behavior of adolescents and youths were explored. Society’s values and interpretations given to traditional medicine, health service and religious practices were studied in their local context.
Apart from my research activities, I teach undergraduate courses at the department of Anthropology in Mekelle University. I advise students’ senior essays and mentor female students by giving life skill trainings and research writing for their academic performance. In the meantime, I do personal workouts at home and I like swimming and biking as well.
Now, my application for the PhD program in the ECLIPSE research project is accepted. I look forward to a successful academic achievement during my study.