Lightyear in Ethiopia 2020: Power Comes From Wholeness

I began 2010 with an adventurous journey to the Gheralta Mountain range of Northern Ethiopia where I co-led a Lightyear program with Seid Amen for over 50 government officials, teachers and non-profit leaders on integrity, possibility, and vision.  From that day forward, Seid and his amazing team built their award-winning organization Imagine1Day on the foundation of Lightyear tools.

In 2015, I kept a promise to return and lead a group of 120 Government officials through Personal Legacy and Integrated Leadership.

In 2017 I brought a group of North Americans including the Lightyear Team who produced three simultaneous transformational trainings - one in the Northern region of Tigre, one in the central region of Adama and one in the Southern region of Bale. We also came to inaugurate a school in a remote village of Filangur that we had raised money to build. The film below tells some of that story and is fully worth the 9 minutes it takes to watch it.

At the end of the inauguration one major thing was missing from the school we helped build in Filagur- it did not have a well.  The road for the drilling rig was too unstable.  Without the well, the project was incomplete both for us and the community.

As my teacher, Dorothy Espiau always taught 99% = ZERO. 

For three years the Filagur school was not able to fulfill the whole picture of personal empowerment that is the hallmark of Imagine1Day and Lightyear Leadership.  All the work we had done together was still incomplete and wouldn’t be fulfilled until the well was built.  My partner in transformation, Mary Anna Novek never took her eyes off the vision of a whole school and continued to request and follow-through, searching for options and being ardent for possibility.

Mary Anna at the new well in Filagur, Ethiopia

It is with great joy and gratitude to announce that on Jan 2nd 2020 TWO WELLS were successfully created for Filagur! A double blessing.  Is it simply a technical solution or ought we credit the dedication of Mary Anna?  The truth is, you get to say.  How you interpret the world around has everything to do with your level of confidence, power, and happiness.

Of course, there are many people to thank and appreciate, yet for me, the ONE is Mary Anna and her relentless vision - of doing things whole.  May 2020 bring you double blessings of power to share for the good of all.

Love from Susanne

Founder, Lightyear Leadership