Gashaw was born and raised in Gondar, Ethiopia. Political conflict led him to flee to Kenya from Ethiopia in August 2003. He spent 4 years in Nairobi and then moved to Kakuma Refugee Camp in 2007, where he would spend another 12 years. He described life at Kakuma Refugee camp to be difficult with poor living conditions where finding a job was hard and corruption was widespread. Gashaw estimates that at the time there were over 100,000 refugees. Many people fell sick at camp and with poor access to healthcare, many died as Malaria spread rapidly. Gashaw also fell sick with Malaria and talks of the hard recovery without access to healthcare or much support.

When asked how he survived all those years in a refugee camp, Gashaw says “You see others who have been there since 1991, and some are still sadly there. When you see others there for so long, you become grateful in the sense that the time I spent there was small compared to others. Seeing things helped me become strong morally and be grateful for the little things I had, where some lived in tents with snakes…”

“The friends you make in the refugee camp are long-lasting friendships. It was my friend who was sponsored by his brother in Ottawa, who connected me to a friend who introduced me to Care for Refugees and Elfinesh.” After all those years, through the deliberate and hard work from Elfinesh and Care for Refugees after a 3-year process, Gashaw arrived in Canada in 2019.