By Alyssa Taliaferro

Good journalism has always been about shedding light on news that fights to be shared with the world. University of New Hampshire journalism student Merhawi Wells-Bogue understood this, as he returned to campus this fall after having spent the summer filming what he hopes to be a full-length documentary featuring the children of his native village, Mekelle City, Ethiopia.

Wells-Bogue received a research grant through SURF, the summer undergraduate research fellowships, that would allow him to pursue a journalistic research project on both a professional and personal level. The film focuses on the adversity faced each day by street children in Mekelle, a role all too familiar to the UNH senior.

“I wanted to make a difference in my community first before I made a difference in other parts of the world,” he said.

Wells-Bogue spent most of his childhood in Mekelle, until age 14 when he came to the United States. Growing up, he faced great hardship in the streets of Mekelle while working as a street vendor to try and beat the inescapable poverty that overwhelms the country.

“Being a street vendor allowed me to see the dire circumstances of street children,” Wells-Bogue said. “These children were my age, only 10 or 12 years old at the time, and yet they didn’t work like me to survive. They depended on people by begging or asking hotels for leftover food.”

Prior to his trip, Wells-Bogue completed an internship in Washington, D.C., through UNH and its affiliate, The Washington Center. There, he interned at Save the Children, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide relief and development work to children in underprivileged countries. This is where his knowledge was enhanced regarding the poverty children were facing all across the world, he said.

Wells-Bogue said he was determined and ambitious as a young child fighting for his life in Mekelle, unlike many of the street children he saw on his trip. Nonetheless, their behavior impacted him as a child.“My fate led me to America,” he said.

After living in the United States for eight years, Wells-Bogue was thrilled to return to his country as a student to investigate an issue that he cared deeply about.

“I was happy to see my family,” he said.Read More