Our Story, the Family, & Gideon’s Legacy
For years, the travel world treated Ethiopia & Tanzania as separate journeys
Run by different companies, taken by different travelers. AbySavana was built on the belief that they were always meant to be one.
We are the Berhanu family. This is not a destination we studied from afar, it is the home that raised us, now opened to you. From the highland churches of Lalibela to the great plains of the Serengeti, we carry guests along a single passage under one family’s care.
The Berhanu Family
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Jessica Berhanu
Jessica & Gideon
“What we offer is not a destination we studied. It is our home we were raised in and now open to you.”
Jessica is Tanzanian. As a girl she sat in her neighbours' home for hours, reading about Ethiopia until it quietly took root in her heart.
Years later, working in Arusha, she met a man who greeted her in Amharic, convinced she must be Ethiopian. That man was Gideon. From that small heartbeat, a whole life began.
Together they built a family across both countries. Their children, Nathan and Tegest, were raised in Tanzania and carry both lands in equal measure.
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Nathan Berhanu
STORY
On a school climb up Kilimanjaro, near the summit, Nathan's friend Jimmy collapsed from the thin air. Turning back would have broken his heart, so Nathan lifted him and carried him the rest of the way. That story became a family standard: you do not leave people behind—not on a mountain and not on a journey. AbySavana holds to that, from the first conversation to the last farewell. Every guest is carried.
Gideon’s dream & legacy
Gideon dreamed of driving from the slopes of Kilimanjaro all the way to Addis Ababa, his whole family beside him—one continuous road between the two countries he loved.
He passed in May 2020 before he could make that drive. AbySavana is that road, carried forward.
Founded by Jessica, Nathan, and Tegest, it turned a father’s dream into the family’s legacy and now into the journey they share with the world.
How we see AbySavana
Two countries. One legacy.
Your homecoming.
AbySavana is not “just a company,” and what we offer is not an excursion. It is how we share what we love most: the two countries that made us, seen through our eyes and carried in our hearts.
When you travel with us, you are a guest of our family, on the road our father dreamed of. You will see these lands not only with your eyes but with your heart—and what the heart has seen, it never forgets.
