Our Team Our Family

Co-Founder & Vice Director

Maren Ahlers

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Grew up in Münster, Germany, known as the ‘bicycle capital’ of Germany. She never used anything besides a bicycle to go to university, grocery shop, or visit friends. When she moved to Addis Ababa, she missed the freedom and ease of riding a bicycle, especially while stuck in the city’s traffic jams. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of Egre Menged Impact, she can now spread the convenience of riding a bicycle in Ethiopian society.

Ephrem Bekele Woldeyesus

He grew up in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, where cycling was very popular because of the street-friendly nature of the city. He then met Maren to start EMi in Addis Ababa in order to promote the active mobility culture in the country. He is very interested in behavioral change and health benefits of cycling. Ephrem traveled around the world developing his impact-driven social enterprise projects.

OUR STORY

When COVID hit Ethiopia in early 2020, Ephrem had just bought his first yellow bicycle, which we named “Bee-Bike,” back for 3.000 Ethiopian Birr (today, in 2023, a bicycle like that costs a minimum of 12.000 ETB). Since we tried to avoid using public transportation, we started using the Bee-Bike and lent another one from a friend for the time being. Together, we explored the city by bicycle on Sundays, where the traffic was less dense, and we had enough time to stop for coffee breaks every few kilometers. Soon, we realized we were not the only ones using bicycles on Sundays to get around and invited more friends to join us to ride together.

In February 2021, we officially started our first project, CYCLEmmunity, which has developed into a commitment to community bicycle rides every Sunday ever since.
In 2022, we started our next two projects, Cycle Techiyalesh and Critical Mass Addis Ababa, to bring together even more active and sustainable mobility enthusiasts.

Fast forward to 2023, and Bee-Bike is still with us! It now serves its purpose in our Women Bicycle Training next to 8 other Women-Bicycles and 15 more we rent to the community for our projects.
For 2024, we already have many new projects in the pipeline and look forward to introducing them to you soon!

Meet our Board Members

The CSO has five very engaged board members. They are actively helping with and leading projects on the ground and helping with creating national and international partnerships.

Dagmawi is also the co-founder of a known social enterprise in Ethiopia, working on community development with the tool of games called ‘Efuye Gela’. Yonas is the co-owner of a cafe and creative space in Addis called ‘Enitewawek', which is the first one to give a discount to everyone who visits by bicycle.

Henok Mellese

Chair of Board Member
Alice Parounakian

Vice Chair of Board Member
Ahmed Awad

Board Member
Dagmawi Bedilu

Board Member
Yonas Taye

Board Member

Our Awesome Volunteers

Without the help of our amazing lead team and volunteers, we would not be able to have so many projects and events running successfully. You are our (S)Heros!