A Purposeful Life

A Purposeful Life outlines Agitu Wodajo's life's journey growing up in the 60s in Ethiopia; her experience studying and working in both Ethiopia and the United States; traveling the world; the adversities she faced in her life's journey, and how they shaped her life to empower others to bring change to the quality of their family lives and their communities.

Agitu was born and raised in Nedjo, a small rural town in western Ethiopia. During her early life, girls' education was not common in Ethiopia, and the estimated illiteracy rate in the nation was ninety-five percent. But soon after she was born, her father accepted the Protestant Christian faith and purchased a property adjacent to a Swedish Mission School. As a result, she was able to start school at age six. However, despite that promising start, her father abandoned their family leaving her defenseless against a chain of problems: a horrific attack by a school director at the age of ten; she had traveled eighty-five kilometers by mule-back and on foot to attend high school, where she continued to face adversities.

Even after she left school, tribulations followed, and she endured a very abusive marriage while fighting sexual harassment and persecution in her career. But the strong Christian foundation that has shaped her life since childhood, and the unyielding faith and optimism that she sustained through it all led her through the depths of adversity to heed the call to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Her story provides a bridge between the developing and developed worlds toward addressing our shared responsibility in making the world a better place. The NGOs she founded in both Ethiopia and the United States helped underprivileged women through services that build self-sufficiency, and policy-change advocacy that lift barriers.

Agitu Wodajo has more than thirty years of extensive experience in the areas of women empowerment, healthcare, community/economic development, and social policy. She obtained diplomas in community nursing and as a pediatric nurse practitioner before she moved to the United States where she earned a bachelor of arts in human services from Metropolitan State University, an executive master of public affairs from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs/University of Minnesota as a Bush leadership fellow, and a PhD in Christian leadership from Christian Leadership University.

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