Help Eyob purchase a Taxi and support his family.

I met Eyob 9 years ago when I traveled to Ethiopia and he has been like a little brother ever since. When I met him, he was only 11 , the oldest of 7 children and the breadwinner for his family. Eyob moved from the countryside to Addis Ababa to work and support his family. He started off as a “shoe shiner” and after several years and with the financial help of many of my friends and family, he was able to attend school and learn to read and write, enough to help him pass his drivers license exam. After years of working and saving while sending money back home to support his family, he was able to save enough money to rent a cab and now works as a cab driver. After our recent conversation, he told me he was saving $2,000 to “illegally” migrate to South Africa for an opportunity to work, a treacherous journey that takes anywhere from 30 days to 6 months by car, by foot and water (by boat and swimming). This same journey was responsible for the death of his friend who died from suffocating inside a shipping container while being smuggled into South Africa. I asked him what would keep him in Ethiopia and avoid possibly the same fate as his friend, he told me if he had his own cab, it could significantly change the quality of his life and his families. After doing plenty of research 350,000birr ($7,500 USD) would allow him to put the down payment for a taxi and he would pay the remaining balance of $12,000 to the bank as a loan over 10 years by working as a cab driver. My hope here is to raise $7,500 USD and help him buy this cab. I am so proud of how far he has come and with our support, we can literally change his life and his 8 other family members. I am asking you to help with as little or as much as possible, anything and everything will help. Thank you so much !!!!



I felt inspired to start this gofundme for Eyob after recently losing my dear friend Rukshan from Sri Lanka. When the Covid Pandemic hit, while already living in poverty and after all economic opportunities were completely wiped out in Sri Lanka, Rukshan traveled to Thailand in hopes of finding a way to support himself and his family back home. Within three months of being in Thailand, I received a call letting me know that he was no longer with us. My hope is to support Eyob so he doesn't have to make a potentially fatal choice out of desperation. I can’t think of a better way to honor Rukshan’s life than by providing an opportunity for someone who is in the same exact predicament