Kirby Sports Center was topped with 1,226 solar panels in 2022 to increase renewable energy on campus. Just 20% of those panels could provide electricity for all 250 homes in Hidi, Ethiopia, and Rediate Kologek ’27 is making progress toward that.
“I hope one day, it can really bring a sustainable solution to Hidi village,” Kologek said about her nonprofit organization, Radiate Love.
Since the beginning of her freshman year of college, Kologek has raised over $4,000 of the $22,500 needed to bring one solar panel to every home in Hidi. Most recently, her Valentine’s Day cookie sale brought in $284 from the Lafayette College community for the cause.
Kologek said the project is very personal to her. She grew up in Hidi before being placed for adoption in the U.S. at age 7 by her mother, who intended to give Kologek opportunities unavailable in Hidi.
“I love people in my community and I always wanted everybody to have what I had,” she said. Kologek has since reunited with her family and has visited Hidi twice.
Hidi is in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, about 106 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa. The village has no electricity or running water. According to Kologek, it is “right in the middle” of the ongoing conflict between the Ethiopian government and Fano militants in the region.
There are many reasons why she chose solar panels as the focus of her nonprofit, Kologek said.
Visiting her family in Hidi for the first time in nine years, Kologek noticed that socializing as a family was difficult when the only available light was from flashlights. In a community supported by subsistence farming, an agricultural practice in which crops are primarily produced for the household, Kologek said that the only time for families to get together was at night.
“If you don’t have anything in this world, having people that love you, it gives you peace,” she said. She added that electricity would also allow its residents to accomplish more tasks daily because they would not be limited to sunlight.
Through her fellowship with the Dyer Center, Lafayette’s entrepreneurial student hub, Kologek has been able to provide six solar panels — $90 each — to Hidi so far.
Kologek, an international affairs major and Spanish minor, said that the Dyer Center was a major factor in her decision to attend Lafayette and emphasized how the center provided support and “so many resources” for her project.
“She knows what she wants,” said Matt Bednarsky, the Dyer Center’s program manager and fellowship coordinator. “We want to help her build the resources, tools, connections to achieve that.”
As a Dyer fellow, Kologek has funding and support to help her develop her project. She also said that the Dyer Center helped her think about making her project sustainable to make a difference long term, as solar panels do not last forever.
“We want her organization to have the funding and the wherewithal to last a long time and to help the people of Hidi, in all facets, grow,” Bednarsky said.
Radiate Love was born when Kologek was in high school through her fellowship with LearnServe International, an organization that provides resources and support for students to tackle issues — or, in their words, “what pisses them off” — and make a difference.
Latrina Bowman, LearnServe’s director of programs and student success, worked with Kologek through her first year at the organization. She emphasized the power of Kologek’s connection with the community of Hidi. She said it helped Kologek “understand those needs and to really be intentional about her planning.”
“They helped me be realistic about what I can do, especially as a high school student,” Kologek said, noting that LearnServe also helped her narrow her focus and dig deeper into her passion for fighting poverty.
Helping Hidi has not been without challenges. The ongoing violence once impeded Kologek’s partnership with another LearnServe fellow to expose Hidi Primary School students to science and engineering in a nearby city — they were able to improvise and still provide an experience for students.
Accomplishing her goal has also taken time and hard work.
“It’s not easy,” Kologek said. “It takes patience. It doesn’t just happen.”
Kologek said she plans to host more sales soon to work towards the $22,500. She has a long-term plan for Hidi, including improving job and education access, that she said will be incorporated into her life after college no matter what her career ends up being.
Kologek said she hopes she can also inspire other students to make a difference.
“I hope that, in whatever way, it inspires them to do something about what they’re passionate about,” she said. “Whatever it is.”
