Abdi started E4Change so no one would have to follow his footsteps in order to be educated. In his day, few got to attend school, and as he grew older he had to go farther and farther from home to attend school.

After gathering some friends and colleagues, he went back to the village where he had contacts and began asking people what they needed in order to give their children opportunities.  E4Change was created not to bring in foreign ideas about what might work, but to empower local people to enact strategies that they have been part of shaping.

This talk was given in Waterloo, Ontario, when Abdi returned to Canada for a visit in the summer of 2025.