Founder & Executive Director
Dana Roskey was a teacher for many years in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Inspired by the commitment of his fiancée, Leeza, to provide education to disadvantaged children in her native country of Ethiopia, Dana was moved to establish the Tesfa Foundation after her untimely passing. Since then, he has served as executive director of the Tesfa Foundation, spending the better part of ten years in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia Country Director
Yenebeb Getachew

Ethiopia Administrative Staff
Azania Girma, Finance Officer
Dagmawit Fisseha, Finance Officer
Behailu Bizuneh, Education Program Supervisor
Senayit Alemu, Schools Supervisor

Board Members
Caisy Baird
Julie Light-Orr
Lizbeth Moss
Jon Moss
Scott Wolf
Lacey Yantis

Kids for Kololo Junior Ambassadors
Meazi Light-Orr
Melese Light-Orr

Our Inspiration

The Tesfa Foundation was founded in 2004 to commemorate the life of Leeza Woubshet. Hope is a virtue that meant the world to her. Her greatest dream was to someday help the children of her native country of Ethiopia and guide them to real hope in their lives. Leeza (Fregenet Woubshet), a 29-year-old American citizen of Ethiopian orgin, died in an auto accident in the summer of 2003. She had just completed her education in accounting, and was about to embark on the work she saw for herself ahead: the support of her family in Ethiopia and, in the longer term, the assistance of children of Ethiopia. She wanted to found a school for disadvantaged children in Addis Ababa. After she died, a group of friends and family decided her dream wouldn’t die. From this emerged the Tesfa Foundation.
Tesfa’s first school was the Tsegereda kindergarten, founded in 2004 and given the Amharic name for “Rose”, which was Leeza’s Woubshet’s nickname when she was a child. The school was founded in the poor district of Addis Ababa called Shiro Meda. At the time, there were no options for early childhood education for the children of the district. The school served the poorest in the neighbourhood. Over time, other schools were opened, and eventually the government promulgated a policy for kindergartens in governmental schools. We eventually closed Tsegereda in order to focus on areas outside the capital city with greater need.

Milestones

2004:The Tesfa Tsegereda Schools opens, a kindergarten serving 60 underprivileged children in the Shiro Meda district of Addis Ababa.
2006: School 2 opens in Mojo, a town near Addis Ababa.
2006: School 3 opens in Bishoftu/Debre Zeit.
2007: School 4 is built in a village outside of Bahir Dar in northern Ethiopia.
2007: Team Tesfa is founded.
2008: School 5 opened in the Mercato district of Addis Ababa.
2009: School 6 opened in the Mercato district of Addis Ababa.
2010: School 7 is built in the village of Ekodaga outside of Chancho.
2012: The Kololo Kindergarten and Primary School is built in the village of Kololo in the Central Ethiopia Region in the Tembaro Special Woreda.
2013: The Azedebo Kindergarten School is built in the Central Ethiopia Region, Kembata Zone, in the village of Azedebo.
2013: The Fundame Kindergarten School is built in the Central Ethiopia Region, Kembata Zone, in the village of Fundame.
2018: The school lunch program was added in Kololo, Azedebo, and Fundame.
2022: An additional school is constructed for the Kololo Primary School.