Upcoming Events
JFAN Detroit Fall 2020 Virtual Luncheon
Thursday, November 12, 2020
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Eastern
The Pandemic’s Impact on People Living in Extreme Poverty in Developing Nations
Featured Speakers from International Samaritan
Mike Tenbusch, president
Selam Terefe, Country Director of Ethopia
Mike Tenbusch and Selam Terefe will lead a conversation about the challenges being faced by people living in some of the most impoverished communities in the world. The conversation will focus on the lives of people who had been making a living in the informal economy surrounding some of the largest garbage dumps in the world, and some of the inspirational ways they are overcoming the virtual shut down of the jobs in these communities due to coronavirus related restrictions.
Participants on this Zoom call will have the opportunity to attend a smaller, break out session during the second half of the call to hear from and talk directly with the leaders of International Samaritan’s work in the following nations:
- Ethiopia
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Nicaragua
About the Speakers
The president of International Samaritan, Mike Tenbusch is a graduate of U of D Jesuit High School, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Michigan Law School. He co-founded Think Detroit in 1997, which merged with Detroit PAL in 2006 and served 14,000 young people last year. He also led an effort at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to dramatically improve graduation rates in the region’s most historically challenged high schools and is the author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against Poverty (InterVarsity Press, 2016).
Selam Terefe is the Country Director of Ethiopia for International Samaritan and is passionate about development in Africa through effective partnerships. With degrees in law, management, sociology, and "Peace, Security, and Development," she has extensive experience in international development and aid. An inspirational advocate for women’s rights and an attorney for the United Nations, Selam created and runs life-changing scholarship programs for 260 young people in the nation’s capital city, Addis Ababa, while also nurturing powerful business coop opportunities for many of their parents.
About International Samaritan
International Samaritan walks hand-in-hand with people living in garbage dump communities of developing nations to help them break out of poverty. It was founded in 1994 by Father Don Vettese, S.J. and a car filled with students from St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo who were so horrified by the conditions that they saw in a community around a garbage dump that they stopped to ask how they can help, and thousands of students from Jesuit high schools across the country have been responding to that call ever since.
This event is being presented through the efforts of the Catholic Foundation of Michigan.
QUESTIONS? Email JesuitAlumDetroit@gmail.com
