Lelt Scholar is Teaching the Next Generation

Meron Tadele was born and raised in Kara Kore, Addis Ababa, the eldest child of Tadele Dendena and Meseret Girma. Growing up, her parents worked hard to provide for the family, stretching limited resources to give Meron and her younger brother Yonatan the best start they could. For her early years, that even meant private kindergarten. But financial instability eventually brought Meron to public school for first through fifth grades.

Meron, age 10, with her mother at home, making traditional Ethiopian bread

That is when her parents turned to Lelt Foundation. In 2012, when Meron was 9 years old, the family joined Lelt’s programs. The financial and holistic support that followed changed the course of her education immediately.

Meron, left, at Lelt's community center with her friend Kidist.

"Once I saw the financial support and encouragement from Lelt Foundation, I worked harder in school and my grades became excellent,” Meron says. “Because of this, Lelt Foundation sent me to Amanuel Academy when I was promoted to grade 6. When I passed to high school, I was enrolled to Abel Academy, another private school where I was sponsored by Lelt Foundation’s scholarship grant."

A Family in Crisis

Behind her academic progress was a home life under serious strain. When Meron was a ninth grader, around 2018, her father began suffering from mental illness. She and her mother took turns staying up through the night to watch over him, leaving Meron exhausted and struggling to keep up with her schoolwork.

She recalls one difficult night during final exams:

“I remember one time during my final exam, my mother and I were exhausted from watching my father late into the night.  I was studying for my exam well after midnight and fell asleep in front of my textbook. I was awoken by a fight between my mentally sick father and my sleeping mother, and saw he was strangling her. I managed to pull his hands from her throat. The next morning, I went to my exam unprepared and very upset.”

When her father was taken to a treatment site, Meron took on a primary role for his care alongside her mother, the two of them alternating shifts for nearly a year. Through all of it, she never stopped attending school.

Her father has since recovered. He now works as a security guard at a bank. Her mother tends a small farm on their plot of land, growing vegetables and raising chickens for the market.

Meron and her mother, Meseret

From Scholarship Recipient to University Student

In 2023, Meron was admitted to Haromaya University in eastern Ethiopia, where she is now a third-year psychology major. Despite a volatile security situation in the region at the time, she made the journey, determined not to let the circumstances hold her back. Lelt Foundation has continued to provide scholarship support throughout her university years.

Her path to psychology is a direct line from her own experience. Watching her father’s illness, caring for him through the worst of it, and witnessing his recovery shaped both her empathy and her professional ambitions. She also credits Lelt with broadening her interests beyond the classroom: she studied music through Lelt’s programs for seven years and has been taking IT courses every summer.

Meron, third from the top left, in Lelt's music class. She plays the masinko, a traditional violin.

Outside of her studies, Meron is an avid reader, an emerging novelist, and a poet. But it is her work with children that defines how she wants to grow into her career.

Giving Back at Lelt's Community Center

Each summer, Lelt Foundation invites university students home to mentor and tutor younger children preparing for the coming school year. Meron has not just participated in the program, but additionally volunteers as a special needs interventionist at the 2026 Lelt Foundation Summer Tutorial Program. She works directly with children struggling with learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dysgraphia.

“This offer by Lelt gives us the opportunity to experience work life,” she says. “Our families also feel good knowing we are not sitting idle at home during our summer break.”

For Meron, it is also something more personal. She grew up receiving support from Lelt at the same Kara Kore facility where she now volunteers. Coming back as a teacher, rather than a student, is a form of reciprocity she takes seriously.

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Lelt Foundation provides scholarships, academic support, and holistic family services for disadvantaged children and young adults in Ethiopia.