Metsehate Ayenekulu

Metsehate Ayenekulu is the Adolescents 360 program director at Population Services International in Ethiopia. A public health and gender expert, she leads a program that teaches teenage brides about family planning. Previously, Ayenekulu served as a specialist at Girl Hub Ethiopia and a policy officer on gender at the embassy of the Netherlands in Ethiopia. The daughter of a child bride, she is a single mother who left an abusive marriage; her interest is in adolescent and youth development with an emphasis on rural girls and helping other girls and women avoid gender-based violence. Ayenekulu is a 2019 Aspen New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She is participating in the Aspen Ideas Festival as a 2019 Scholar.