Displaced by war, a 20-year-old is earning worldwide praise for helping others

At only 20, Nebiyou Timotewos has had quite a life journey so far.

“I have been through so much trauma, the road here wasn’t easy,” he said from a Toronto apartment he now shares with his parents and siblings.

Born in Ethiopia, where he says his family was uprooted after experiencing political corruption and poverty, his father moved them to Yemen for a better life only to have another major setback.

“About a year after we moved there, the civil war broke out,” he said. “Homes and schools were bombed.”

Once again, the family had to escape, first relocating to Dublin, Ireland, before immigrating to Canada, landing in Toronto when he was only 12.

“We had to leave everything behind and had nothing,” he said.  “We had to go straight to a shelter where we were surviving off community donations for food, clothes, shelter, everything.”

Well, almost everything. Clothing donations for kids his size were short that year.

“We had to spend our first Canadian winter in mostly t-shirts and shorts,” Timotewos said. “When we went to school, kids would ask ‘Why are you wearing that?’ We were too embarrassed to say the reason so we just told them we weren’t that cold – but we were!”

After seven months his family settled into a better life, finding alternative housing in a Toronto apartment complex they now call home.

“As I was leaving the shelter I made a TikTok video saying ‘One day I am going to come back here to make sure that no youth goes through what I had to go through.'”

Timotewos more than kept his promise.

Just three years later, he began social work at 15 with the Second Youth Council, aiding homeless individuals with food, clothing, and gardening services.

Now enrolled at York University, Timotewos founded two non-profit organizations: Brothers4Brothers, a mentorship program for young men’s mental health, and another supporting over 1,500 youth in Canada and Ethiopia with essential items and workshops.

He also launched a “Kindness Tour” where he travels the world speaking to youth to help raise funds for orphans in Ethiopia.

Now on his “Stronger Together” world tour, Timotewos raises money for scholarships to help African street youth transition into classrooms.

He’s done all this after only becoming a Canadian citizen 10 months ago.

“The drive I have is kindness,” he said. “My motto is there is a power in kindness, we were given so much when we came here, I must give back and I generally believe every youth has the same passion to create change, they just don’t know where to start.”

This is why Timotewos’ various charities are run only by youth – something he says will not change as he ages.

“Father Time is going to catch up to me. When the time comes, and I am no longer a youth, I will have to pass it down,” he said.

“The focus of our work is to help people of course but another main goal is to inspire other young people to get involved and be the change they want to see in the world but it only works because it is run by other young people, that cannot change.”

That mission statement is earning Timotewos worldwide recognition.

Earlier this month, he became a recipient of the prestigious Diana Award, set up in memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales which is given to just 200 young people worldwide annually who demonstrate acts of social impact.

While the honour is something Timotewos will forever cherish, the spotlight he says, is not his drive.

“To do this work, your focus should not be on the awards. You need to be rooted in your own values.”

Values learned along his tough journey, from Ethiopia, and Yemen to his time in a shelter here in Toronto.

“I would not want to live through what we went through ever again but I will not change anything about it. Because if I do, I’m erasing the person that I am today.”

Timotewos now hopes his story inspires others, no matter their age.

“We all want to see change. We all want to see hope. We all want to see peace but many of us are not acting on it. And if every single person says, ‘I am just a person, what am I supposed to do?’ nothing will get done. Just do it,” he said.

For more information on Timotewos’ work, you can search his name on social media.

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