OUR TEAM
Our US Team
Marco Guzzardo
Board Member/Founder/President
Born and raised in Rome, Italy, Marco Guzzardo came to the United States at the age of 18 to continue his education.
University at Old Dominion University was completed with a Business Degree in Marketing along with a Fashion education at Instituto di Moda a Roma.
Marco began his humanitarian work 14 years ago when he supported 4 children in different countries through the Children International Foundation.
12 years ago, Marco formed a 501C called Help a Life Foundation whose purpose is to house and educate adolescent orphan girls in Ethiopia. He has chosen to dedicate his time, talent, and resources to Help a Life Foundation, an endeavor envisioned after his first trip to Ethiopia in 2007. Traveling the country for eight days – going from village to village – Marco witnessed first hand the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS and malaria on the country leaving it with over 4.5 million orphans.
While in Ethiopia, Marco developed plans to initiate his own non-profit and partnered with the Anti-Malaria Association (AMA), an Ethiopian NGO. The team hired a local architect and engineer to draw up blueprints and a budget for the agreed upon endeavor named “Project Blue”.
The plans were submitted to officials in Debre Markos (a semi-rural town in east-central Ethiopia) where the project was granted 25 acres of land to build schools and dormitories for girls orphaned mostly by HIV/AIDS and malaria.
The first Learning Center was completed in 2010. The first group of15 orphan girls were selected and began the 4 years of High school/4 years of University program. In 2011, Help a Life became an Ethiopian NGO which allowed Help a Life to fully operate their project independently in Ethiopia.
Marco oversees a staff of 8 volunteers in the United States whose skills and talents range from Grant Writing to Event planning plus a staff of 10 Ethiopians working on the project in Ethiopia. Events, private donations and Online charity art sales have become the staple for income for the Ethiopian orphan girl project. In 2013, Marco received the prestigious African Goodwill Ambassador from the African Focus Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
Menbere Aklilu
Board Member/Vice President
Menbere Aklilu is a philanthropist, and an advocate against domestic violence. She is a survivor of family violence as a young child in Ethiopia and later faced abuse from her former husband while living in Italy.
After finding refuge at the Mother Teresa Shelter for Women in Rome where she gave birth to her son Menbe rebuilt her life for herself and her son in Contra Costa County.
Today she makes significant impacts in our community through her inspiration and generosity to those in need. Menbere has become a sought-after speaker internationally on the topic of violence against women.
Selamawit Alemu
Board Member/Ethiopia project coordinator and Secretary
Liliana Gallelli
Advisor Committee/Legal Attorney for Help a Life Foundation
Liliana has a background in estate planning, closely-held businesses and non-profit organizations. She is an attorney now practicing those bodies of law in addition to immigration, criminal and family law.
Prior experience includes a one-year internship at the City of Burbank City Attorney’s Office where she conducted misdemeanor court trials and assisted Deputy City Attorneys in the prosecutorial process.
Thereafter, Ms. Gallelli completed a one-year internship with the international law firm, Noronha-Advogados, where she worked on international transactions. ??Ms. Gallelli earned a Bachelor of Arts in French Language and Literature from California State University Northridge and a Juris Doctor degree from University of La Verne Law School. While in law school, Ms. Gallelli distinguished herself as a Staff Writer of the university’s Law Review and one of her unique articles has since been referenced by the Stanford Law & Policy Review.
Professional affiliations include the American Immigration Lawyers Association and California Women Lawyers. Ms. Gallelli is an active Director of the Help A Life Foundation, Inc. She previously served on the board of the San Luis Obispo Literacy Council and volunteered at the San Luis Obispo Women’s Shelter as counsel to battered women.
Tigist Goshu
US/Europe Project Manager of Help a Life Foundation USA
Born and raised in Ethiopia, Tigist migrated to the United States to further her education where she completed an undergraduate degree in International Business and Economics. Over time, she has discovered that her passion in life is to care for and assist vulnerable children in Africa to live dignified and fulfilled lives. She has been an advocate for human rights and equal opportunities in education and health care, specifically working to ensure that women and girls have a voice.
In 2008, Ms. Goshu joined the Help a Life Foundation team, believing strongly in its approach of educating girls in Ethiopia and for its inspiring message to “help create a better world. one village at a time”.
Currently employed in a Los Angeles based NGO, Relief International, Tigist is living her dream of assisting children in Africa to enjoy better access to health care and education, regardless of socio-economic status. She believes that the education of girl children is one of the strongest investments that can be made in Africa, one that can transform the continent from the bottom up. She has volunteered with numerous organizations including the African Women’s Coalition, Mercy Corps, relief efforts for the homeless in Washington, D.C.and has provided volunteer counseling for immigrant women in Portland, Oregon. In her spare time she enjoys reading, traveling, dancing, researching, and meeting people from all cultures.
Our Ethiopia Team
Avinor Alemu Goshu
Director for Ethiopia Operations
Avinor was born in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. He graduated high school at 18 and earned a Degree in Pharmacy at 20. He did his residency in a very remote area of Ethiopia where he experienced poverty and the will to survive on the most basic level. This life changing experience has affected him to the point he now devotes a good percentage of his free time in different educational and developmental activities for the poverty stricken in Ethiopia.
He has taken different courses and training in management, sales and marketing on a collegiate level and has served as a Board Member of a local NGO’s, Save your Generation. This NGO focuses on youth health and education.
Avinor Join Help a Life Foundation in 2008 as the Ethiopian Director of Operations. Currently employed with Bayer Pharmaceuticals as medicinal advisor and sales representative for Ethiopia.
Birhan Awoke
Project Manager
Birhan Awoke was born and raised in Debre Markos, Ethiopia. She began her career as a language teacher where she perfected her command of reading, writing and speaking English. She next moved on to the local Government and became the Director of the Woman’s Affairs office in Debre Markos where she saw first hand the importance of education and woman rights. After having success running the Woman’s Affairs department she was transferred to the Culture and Tourism Department and managed that for 2 years until they expanded her department to include Culture, Tourism and Youth. Her managerial skills plus her strength in languages, especially English, had her being groomed by the top officials in the Debre Markos Government to head other departments.She joined the Help a Life Foundation organization as the Project Manager in 2015 and has been instrumental in growing the group home’s enrollment and increased the grades to the point we now have close to a 100% success rate of orphan girls completing High School and enrolling to University’s throughout Ethiopia.
Sahile Mihiret
Assistant to the Director of HALF
Sahile has been with Help a Life for the past 7 years. She began by being an assistant to the Director of the HALF program and has worked her way up to be the purchaser of all items used by the group home. She also works with all of the girls in the group home as House Mother and oversee’s their day to day schedule from breakfast until they go to bed at night. Sahile has become a very valuable part of the Help a Life team and has been taken on many responsibilities willingly that go beyond her position. Her good nature and stability has made her the one to go to when all else has turned upside down.
Birukitawit Alehegn
Property and Inventory Supervisor
BIRUKITAWIT ALEHEGN is from the town of Mota an lost both of her parents when she was one years old. She moved in and was raised by her Grandmother. My grandmother was selling Tella (local drink) to support us and as she got older and did not have anybody else in the house, I started helping more with the house work. I started losing interest in school when I got to 7th grade because I use to get so tired from all the work I was doing during the day and in the evening I would just fall asleep instead of going to school. My grades were slipping but I somehow made it to 8th grade.
In eighth grade, I registered for a chance to go to an orphanage. At the end of the school year I was told that I was going to go to Debre Markos to join Help a Life Foundation. On September 29, I arrived at the foundation and from there made a lot of friends and found my new family. Today, I have finished college and working for Help a Life for the past 4 years as a Property and Inventory Supervisor. I work closely with the kitchen staff and order all food/house supplies along with being a mentor to all the High School students who Live in the group home.
Tinsae Mekonnen
Academic Advisor
Born and raised in Amanuel Woreda, Tinsae joined Help a Life Foundation in 2011 where she was selected, along with 9 other girls, from surrounding villages near Debre Markos, Ethiopia, to join the Project Blue educational program from Help a Life Foundation and moved into the first Group Home that were beginning in Debre Markos. Her Grades increased to straight A’s mostly because she was able to focus on her education along with a family life for the first time.
8 years later, in 2019, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Gondar, Ethiopia with 3.76 GPA of a scale 4.0. Her goal was to become a Doctor but had to change it to Engineering when she enrolled at the Gondar University due to the Ethiopian Education policy to place 70% of the students in the Engineering Field.
She was chosen to become the Academic Advisor for Help a Life Foundation’s Project Blue in December of 2019 where her responsibility include almost every aspect of the Group Home girl’s education and daily lifestyle.