Berhanu was born into an orthodox family where a lot of devil worship and witchcraft was practiced.  His father died when he only 6 years old and his mother remarried another 3 times or so.   Berhanu had a hard time living with his family and left home at the age of 15 to live with other relatives. He was 16 when he met a missionary lady who gave him shelter.

For the first time, he went to a mission school where he accepted Christ as his personal Saviour.  He was then in 6th grade and at the end of that year went off into the countryside to teach.  This was the end of his regular schooling and he finished his education through night school while working, together with correspondence courses.  This continued until his 2nd year of college when he was privileged to go to the States and finish his first degree.

Since joining African Enterprise in 1960 as a Consultant on Training leaders, Berhanu has taken on an array of responsibilities from coordinating training ministries in East Africa, to building an AE Team in Ethiopia.  He is now helping the U.S.A. office with partnership development.