Marakie Tesfaye, PhD
Jegnit Women Movement Founder
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
Dr. Marakie Tesfaye Founded the Jegnit Ethiopia Movement to remove obstacles for women and girls in Ethiopia. The Jegnit movement among other projects created the Birqe dignity Kit, Mechot Toilet Finder App and is currently working on Kebelo, a water transportation tool.
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
Dr. Marakie believes in collaborating. She also loves working with other powerful women that are in the Women Empowerment space. Birqe is a period dignity kit that is ran collaboratively with the founder of the ICare Movement Mahlet Zeleke. Birqe Dignity kit is a bucket with reuseable pads, soap, underwear and other necessary items for girls placed in a bucket and distributed to schools in an effort to keep girls in school for upto 2 years. Preventing them from dropping out due to lack of menstruation hygiene management products. To date Birqe has been distributed to more than 50,000 girls in Ethiopia.
GWADEGNA WASH TV PROGRAM - Co-Host
Period Poverty Advocate Birqe Dignity Kit - Co-Founder
GWADEGNA WASH TV PROGRAM - Co-Host
Dr. Marakie Tesfaye is extremely passionate about Sanitation Hygiene Management and to bring the issues of Sanitation to the forefront, she created and co-hosted the Gwadegna TV Program on Kana TV. This program was broadcasted in Ethiopia in 2020 in the Amharic Language and is currently available on Youtube.
TEDx Speaker
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
GWADEGNA WASH TV PROGRAM - Co-Host
Dr. Marakie Tesfaye spoke at the 2025 TEDx Logan Circle event in Washington, DC, with the talk titled “Where Do You Go When You Gotta Go?” She highlighted the urgent need for toilet accessibility and introduced her framework, Feminist Sanitation Justice.
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
Dr. Marakie Tesfaye is a certified practitioner in Creativity and Change Leadership. She facilitates groups and retreats using applied creative thinking and creativity tools, and she draws on design thinking and creative problem-solving to inspire and drive social change.
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Advocate
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
Applied Creative Thinking and Creativity Practitioner
Dr. Marakie Tesfaye has been working in HIV/AIDS awareness for over 10 years. She has led numerous prevention campaigns, including the UNFPA Condomize Campaign and DKT International’s Timret Le Hiwot Safer Life Wise Up campaign in Ethiopia. She is currently serving as a Medical Social Worker at the Grady Hospital Infectious Disease Program in Atlanta, GA.