“It’s a movement now and there is work to be done.”

An in-depth interview with an Ethiopian American doctor who is talking, healing and inspiring.

Tiberah Tsehai, TsehaiNY.com
Published October 1, 2008

If you never thought that one person can change the world, after meeting Dr. Mehret Mandefro, you will be convinced otherwise. 

Mehret is a public health physician using oral histories to teach about health, a role she describes as an honor and a privilege.  “I take it seriously but most of all, its fun to teach.  This is the best part about my job and I love it.”

Having left her native land of Ethiopia at just one and a half years old, Mehret grew up in Northern Virginia.  Northern Virginia is part of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and is home to the largest population of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia.  “We are over 100,000 there now.  So, I grew up going to Amharic school at my dad’s church in addition to regular school.”   

Mehret describes her childhood as being no different than most immigrants in America.  “My parents were pretty strict about speaking Amharic inside the house and drilling in that I was Ethiopian first.”  She cited both her parents as important sources of inspiration.  “My mother is the best definition of love that I have.  The kind of love that leaves you changed forever, and my father is a constant reminder that there are some things worth fighting for that are much greater than you.  Ethiopia is his first love and always will be.”  

As a child, Mehret wanted to be many different things including a dancer but when she was accepted into Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, her aspirations started to change. 

During her college years, Mehret had “the good fortune” of having Dr. Jonathan Mann, the father of the health and human rights movement, as a professor.  His course Public Health, Human Rights and HIV came at a critical time in Mehret’s own educational experience. 

Dr. Mehret Mandefro presenting at the United States Conference on AIDS 2008 where she speaks on a panel about the connections between domestic violence and HIV.


“I had just spent a semester abroad in Kenya as an Anthropology major where I had interned rehabilitating malnourished children at a feeding camp and was so disturbed by what I had seen.”  This experience made it difficult for Mehret to make sense of how that world and hers at Harvard connected.  “Dr. Mann’s framework in that class, using human rights, gave me a language to make sense of it all.” 
 


 



  
             
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