Yazmi establishment and soft opening

 Hello, I am Semira Jemal a rising senior at Lebawi Academy. I am passionate about economics and computer science. The experience I had as an intern at Yazmi helped me to explore my passion in a real life working environment.


 A curious African man wanted to go back to university to answer only one question. The question was how did Europe develop after going through the Dark Age. It took him two years to find an answer. Cleopatra a very beautiful and intelligent queen of Egypt was loved by Roman rulers, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Antony was jealous because of her love for Julius Caesar and one day because of his anger he burnt the Alexandria library. This library had most of the worlds knowledge and wisdom but when it burnt down there was no way to regain. Unfortunately, the Arabs had translated the books that were found in the library into their language. At that time the Ottoman Turk Empire started to expand into Europe through Spain. When the Arabs settled in Europe the Europeans also started translating the books that were translated by Arabs. Afterwards there was the invention of the printing press which facilitated the expansion of knowledge. It was because of the above cause that the Renaissance and other intellectual movement started. This answer was a turning point for Noah Samara the founder and CEO of Yazmi. He came to conclude that it was the transfer of information that changed Europe and the whole world. This inspired him to create the first satellite enabled content delivery system that could be accessed without the need of internet and electricity. The motto of the company is beaming knowledge to everyone. Yazmi offers a scalable, cost effective, easy to use and portable connectivity solution. Yazmi can help by providing educational, training and continuous professional development contents to students, teachers, and others. Yazmi is capable of multicasting live and pre-recorded content across Africa. Yazmi has successfully worked with various governments, capacity building and training institutes across Africa, with positive results from users.

Yazmi has now opened its office in Ethiopia and also have its office in USA. There was something unique about the soft opening. There were no music bands like other openings, the program was intended to send a message about the value of education. You may think that someone would come out and read about the importance of education, no that was not the case. Rather, students who have been through different life situations shared their challenge and success. Though, every students story was different, all were students of Lebawi Academy. When guests heard their stories, some laughed, while others cried.

“It is in our collective interest to solve the education challenge” Noah Samara

Thank you for reading and I look forward to your visit to my next blog. 

Tolstoy Book Review

From all the books I have read so far Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the books that had a particular significance in one aspect of my life. Even though the pages were very small there was a lot to take. The book talks about death, the end of life which no human beings in this world have no clue when it will happen to them. Ivan Ilyich was a respected judge who was successful in his career. However, he regretted the life he lived when he died. He was living in the circle that society has created for him. He passed without experiencing outside of that circle. His family, friends and everyone who came to his funeral, did not think about his death but rather the future power and pension they will get. Only one person felt a real sympathy for him and that person was his servant, Gerasim. He cried and remembered all the good sides of his boss and felt a real sympathy for his boss. Gerasim was the only person from that community who believed there is an end of life for each human being. Gerasim was capable of developing the meaningful relationships that is important to a fulfilling life. He was at peace with himself, and the mutually comforting relationships he has established not only add immeasurable joy to his life, they also give him the courage and strength to confront death.

Before reading the book I never considered death as part of life. I hear people die but I had not actually been in a situation where someone close to me passed away. I think maybe it is because of my experience I did not consider death as part of life. Nevertheless, after reading the book, I started to think about death deeply. Unfortunately, on the first month of my senior year, one of my caring friend from school passed away. It was the most miserable and savage experience as I have not been not in that kind of situation before. This was when I understood one of the characters in the book, Gerasim. The belief I learned from him that there will be a time for every human being’s death made me to embrace the situation and think about the meaning of life. I then started to think what the book is trying to portray. Then I realized when we die we do not remember the accomplishment we made or the wealth we accumulated rather the time when we lived for others. The fact that these days, we human being are in a hurry by doing things that are expected from us and forget about our true-life purpose will put us in a questioning situation as Ivan was. I finally came to the conclusion in which “Confronting the reality of death force us to reflect on the meaning of life.”

Through his suffering and death, the main character of the book (Ivan Ilyich) portrays a difficulty in understanding the meaning of life and death but once the end is close, accepting and confronting death is the only option.

Thank You!!