Joy Doreen Biira

21/07/2025

Have you been to Addis Ababa lately? {𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓶𝓮}

First, the airport is busier than usual. The human traffic at Bole seems to have doubled over the last 24 months. It makes sense considering Ethiopian Airlines increase in fleet count and connecting destinations around the world.

Beyond the airport, Ethiopia’s capital city is one big construction site. There are infrastructure upgrades in most of Addis (at least the parts that greet visitors eyes). For each of those blue-white vintage cars, there are now newer models of cars. However, what is even more noticeable is the expanded triple carriage lanes that have opened up the city’s traffic by day.

Drive through bole road by night, and the Addis from 12 months ago, is now a mini city of lights along the highway for the most part - a nominal sign that the system is being intentional about its economic development atleast from a bird’s eye tourist, business, and diplomatic angle (All political factors constant/story for another day).

’s tech/telecom industry is on an upward spiral. For instance Safaricom Ethiopia has more than doubled its active customer base to 8.8 million with over 3,141 network sites in operation. Before this Ethio telecom dominated with a robust customer base exceeding 76.1 million, as of March 2024.

Could this then be the base for what can/could propel a thriving tech ecosystem? Yes, I think so!

During my stay in Addis I walked into hosted by Reach for Change Ethiopia in partnership with Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning.

Young innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, ecosystem enablers, and high-level government stakeholders engaging in what Ethiopia’s technology-enabled education should look like now and the near future.

Walking through the exhibition area, what I witnessed were innovations tailor-made to solve some of the country’s learning challenges. Here are some from the 11 solutions exhibited that I had the pleasure of interacting with;

Tsehai-for-Families by Whiz Kids that supports holistic child development through online courses (TV/radio shows),

Qalam education, a platform tackling high failure rates among Grade 12 students with personalized online learning,

𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙚 𝘿𝙤𝙘𝙠 uses digital content, AI-powered learning, data insights to provide personalized education.

𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙯 𝙏𝙚𝙘𝙝 that’s addressing unequal access and outdated methods in education by translating curriculum aligned content into practical quizzes for grade 8 and above learners.

Bisrategebriel Fisseha of Kuraz Tech believes, “telecom and government support can go a long way in making learning even more accessible”.

I agree with him.

If 11 solutions can reach over 250,000 learners imagine how many more learners can be reached if more entrepreneurs are supported? Young people know what ails our education systems and are doing their part.

Just like we’ve embraced tech as an enabler to connect travelers, too, can have the same spiral effect through an enabling environment.

19/07/2025

18/07/2025

July 18 is Nelson Mandela Day [stay with me]…

Last month, while on call of duty in South Africa, I planned time to visit some of the historic sites that I learned about back in high school. Despite the number of times I’d been to the South Africa, I’d not once had time to visit some of these historic sites due to schedules. This time I was intentional. One of them was the Mandela House in Soweto.

Howard, 42, who drove me there could see how thrilled I was to be going to a place that’s arguably the most famous street in South Africa. My goal was to get there and simply relive history and take learnings as an Afro-optimist.

About forty minutes into our drive from Sandton, we arrive at 8115, Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, the only street in Africa and possibly the world that is home to two Nobel prize winners - Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu!

It was a ‘wow moment’ unlike Howard who didn’t understand why it was a big deal for me (comes with being in a country that carries the very history that rest of the world wonders about). I explained to him how we watched, read and learned about South Africa’s history, and how it in part informed my pan-African and afro-optimism opinions.

He opted to wait for me outside.

After paying the entry fee, Chris, a tour guide, shows me around explaining each and all the artifacts including evidence of gunshot holes still visible on the walls and floors of the house.

Chris’ narration is so passionate, that one can almost vicariously feel what the family endured during the apartheid period.

As he shows me around, he quickly points at one of the pieces of furniture that sits majestically and stands out in what used to be the living room of the family - a maroon/burgundy sofa (see Frame 1).

“No one is allowed to sit on it”, he adds. And this is the only piece of narration he didn’t want to dwell much on. Almost like to him it was is just a seat, so let’s keep it going to more important pieces of history here.

I play along and when we were through with his routine narration, I requested to go back to the room with the sofa.

“Tell me about that sofa”, I probed further.
He turns to me and says, “no one has asked me this question before.”

“On that sofa, Nelson Mandela laughed, cried, watched events unfold during one of South Africa’s most difficult times. On it, he held his babies after they were born, cringed at the injustices his country was exposed to, and wrote letters to the administrators of the apartheid government. He wrote poems and documented his thoughts.”

Friends, this is the sofa on which the great Nelson Mandela sat and wrote what would today become his most prolific, most quoted and most celebrated speeches and quotable sayings.

There I stood, besides the great sofa, and took a picture next to history - evoking self-reflection and what this great man of the soil stood for - freedom.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Happy Mandela Day!

After my tour, I narrated the experience to Howard and it turned out he’d never been to Mandela House and promised to come back with his son. We then drove to the Apartheid museum right after that (story for another day).

17/07/2025

Reset as many times

15/07/2025

07/07/2025

Confirmation of validation … 😇

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

07:07 pm To be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom.

Great week ahead.

^JDB

01/07/2025

Verification of existence… July is here… God bless

30/06/2025

About the weekend… reliving history. Peep my stories, soon to be highlights, for history lesson 🎞️… great week ahead.

23/06/2025

“In chess, as in life, we total up the pluses and minuses in a position, then go to work figuring out how to improve our side of the ledger.”

Coz y’all have been DM’ing saying I’m silent on the timeline…this is me saying I live in the stories but will make an effort to show up on the TL 🤗

Have a God-filled, productive week, y’all 🥰