Welcome to the virtual home of Ko-K-Yo Foundation! We hope that you will look around a bit to see what we are all about, but we'd like to introduce ourselves as well through this introductory post.

Ko-K-Yo Foundation was founded with the mission to help bring education and entrepreneurial opportunities to the children and the women, respectively, of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The idea was borne from the experiences and interactions of Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie (President and Founder) with the Afar people over the last 13 years through his paleoanthropological field research. He saw first-hand the lack of education in the area and its dire consequences for the children and their future. He witnessed the incredibly difficult daily life of the women and the restrictions placed on them. He had frequent conversations with the chief of the area, Habib Wogris, and was inspired by Habib's vision for the future of his people, a future that included education for all children and opportunities for the women beyond a life of fetching water and firewood.

After the field season in 2015, Yohannes came home to Cleveland and proposed the idea of starting a foundation to help the Afar people in his research area to his wife, Dr. Denise Su. Denise also conducts research on human origins and has worked in the Afar region as well. She enthusiastically agreed that this was a worthwhile and needed project. They began talking to friends about their idea and soon Ko-K-Yo Foundation was born!

Ko-K-Yo Foundation was formally incorporated in August of 2016 and we are currently pursuing 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status with the United States Internal Revenue Service. We hope to have an update on our status soon!