The story of Bring Back Hope began with Tesfaye, which means "my hope" in Amharic.
“Tesfaye's path through life and mine have been very different, but fate somehow caused them to intersect.”
— Gary Segal, BBH Founder and Chair
At the age of 8 Tesfaye was struck with TB, causing his spine to collapse. In 2003, around 13 years old, Tesfaye left his remote village in Gojjam Ethiopia on a long, difficult journey of hope to cure his back. Unfortunately, he had run out of surgical options in Africa. Through getting to know Dr. Rick Hodes and his extraordinary life of humanitarian work, Gary learned of Tesfaye's sad plight one night in Addis Ababa, in March 2008. After a long process, Tesfaye arrived in Vancouver on May 20, 2009, in preparation for his life-saving spine surgery.
Tesfaye successfully underwent complex 14-hour surgery to straighten his spine on June 12th, 2009. You may say that on that date Tesfaye’s life was “reborn”, and the vision for the Vancouver “Bring Back Hope” Initiative was born.
It was only 3 days before Tesfaye arrived in Vancouver, that Gary received the incredibly moving story of Tesfaye’s life history up until then, as told to Chloe Malle, a volunteer who lived in Ethiopia over the period 2008/2009 helping Dr. Rick Hodes carry out his work. Tesfaye was not ready or willing to tell Chloe his story until he knew for certain that he was finally on his way for life-changing surgery in Vancouver.
See the video below, “Tesfaye means Hope”, to learn more about Tesfaye’s life before and after surgery.
Tesfaye's spine before surgery — a 90° angle (Tesfaye lived like this from 1998 to June 2009). *Disclaimer: Tesfaye has provided consent for Bring Back Hope to publish these shirtless images of himself, in order to communicate the severe and life-threatening nature of his spinal deformity prior to his life-saving surgery.
