General Ray Fink - Oklahoma City Sports Information Director

Inside the Sooner - Ayenew Devany: A Star on the Rise

Oklahoma City  – Ayenew Devany is one of the NAIA's premier distance runners. A two-time Sooner Athletic Conference champion and a NAIA All-American, Devany is not a stranger to the mental aspect of navigating a long course to a strong finish.
 
His mental edge began long ago. Devany is a native of Ethiopia, a non-orphaned adoptee from an orphanage, who twice had to learn or relearn a language. His American story started long ago as a toddler alone on the back of a bus in Africa with a note and a handful of money. Today, he is not only an accomplished athlete but a major factor in fundraising for the underprivileged in his native land.
 
After eventually being adopted as a six-year-old and coming to America, he had to learn that his new family loved him without understanding a word they were saying. After being immersed in English, Devany came to understand things better. He would begin to succeed in school and in sports. But he didn't feel whole. The question of why he was abandoned on that bus burned.
 
"Just having a family finally was a blessing," said Devany. "I was in an orphanage, so it was like not having a family. But finally, I got a family and people who cared about me, and I cared about them. At the time, I couldn't speak to them because they didn't know my language at all. They're American folks, so it was hard talking to them. But as soon as I learned the language and knew that they love me and they're there for me no matter what, that was a big thing in my life."
 
Ayenew on the day of his adoption by the Devany family
 
Add to that early frustration the fact that Ayenew knew that he wasn't an orphan. He tried to explain that he had parents and siblings. But there were official documents that said otherwise, and it was assumed that Ayenew may have had false memories. The truth was that he didn't understand what had happened to him.
 
Eventually, his American family, Trish and Bill Devany from Houston, agreed he was ready to make a return trip to Ethiopia and begin the emotional healing process. There were plenty of surprises to come, but he first had to relearn the language.
 
"I was, at this time, 13 or 14, and we went down to Ethiopia together, and we went to the village and met my birth family. And I think that's when everything changed for me. I just felt lost, because I was grateful for the life I had here, but inside I still wondered why my parents had abandoned me. I thought going back may mean little peace inside."
 
Starting at the Beginning
When Ayenew was old enough to remember but too young to understand, his father put him on a bus to an orphanage, hoping he would be adopted by Americans immediately. His father assumed the identity of a dead relative and claimed Ayenew's parents had died.
 
"I don't want to get into the specifics," Devany said of his life at the now-defunct orphanage. "It was a very hard period of my life, where I struggled a lot because of the environment. I was lucky enough to make it through. A lot of my friends didn't get this opportunity, but I made it all the way to America. So, I take it as a blessing."
 
That bus trip was an indelible memory stamped into his mind and it was all based on misunderstandings and lies.
 
After painstakingly re-learning Amharic so he could clearly communicate with his father in person without a translator, Ayenew asked him why.
 
"Like, why did you give me away?" he wanted to know. "He had a lot of farmland. They were living comfortably. They could easily have taken care of me. And he said simply that he saw something in me from a young age. I was learning things very quickly."
 
His father wanted him to have every advantage an American life could give him.
  
Ayenew with his adoptive and birth mothers

 
A Mother's Heart
His father, Ayenew said, thought he would go directly from that bus to America. And not only had he lied about his identity, but he also didn't tell Ayenew's mother.
 
"That's the crazy thing," said Ayenew. "He gave me away, but my mom didn't know. My mom thought I was just lost or had been killed – just lost forever. And so she went to a nearby church all the time. She went there every single day, asking God to look over me or bring me back to her. I truly believe her prayers got me through that orphanage."
 
When he finally returned as a young teenager nearly 10 years later, there was a lot to catch up on.
 
She didn't speak any English, and they at first communicated through sign language until Ayenew redeveloped his native tongue.
 
"It was hard for a little bit, but after that it was amazing to talk to her and to talk to my siblings and friends there."
 
The Devanys arranged for Ayenew to remain in Ethiopia for an extended stay with the help of a friend of his Ethiopian family.

A Hole Filled with Love 
e
As his emotional wound began to heal, Ayenew started reflecting on that healing with grace.
 
"I am grateful for the life I have here in America," said Devany. "But a kid should never go through what I went through. I just laid that all on my father. I think meeting him and talking to him finally made me want to forgive him. He didn't mean to bring all this trauma into my life, all those bad experiences. He thought I was going straight to America from that bus. He didn't know I would spend four years in that orphanage. That made me forgive him a little more. He just didn't know the process."
 
The truth and grace he learned changed Ayenew as well.
 
"I feel like now looking back at it, it was for a reason, and it was God's plan, you know," Ayenew said. "I am blessed with the life I have now, but there was definitely a tough time in my life in that orphanage. I was pretty lost growing up in a way. I just blamed God and everything because it was a pretty bad childhood, so I thought, if God loved me, why would he put me in this situation? It's not that I didn't believe. I just blamed everything on him. And I thought this world was just bad, because the way, the first six, seven years of my life were just so bad that I didn't think there was a good God."
 


All-American Family
Ayenew also very much appreciates the role the Devany family played in his life.
 
"My adopted parents are the greatest people in my life," he said. "I truly believe they are the most amazing people because of how unselfish they were. A lot of times, when families are adopting children from other countries they are not really open to reconnecting their adopted kids to their birth family. But my family was very different. My parents kept my real name. They kept my identity open, and they let me chase it. I am so grateful for that."
 
Ayenew said he didn't make that easy for them at times.
 
"I was a very hard child to raise; not me being a bad kid, but I had a lot of baggage and a lot of traumas and a lot of stuff that, um, that they just dealt with it in this amazing way," Ayenew said.
 
Ayenew wasn't completely alone on that bus. Another young child, Kidane, was also on his way to the orphanage and they became friends there. Kidane was also adopted by an American family, but one from North Dakota.
 
The Devanys arranged for Kidane to come for a visit, which was documented by a news story at the time. The two enjoyed the time together.
 
Fundraising

Returning to the United States after his stay in Ethiopia didn't diminish Ayenew's desire to make a difference. And, like his journey to a better life, his success in helping children in Ethiopia included a humble and unlikely beginning.
 
"So I got pretty famous on TikTok recently," Ayenew explained. "About six months ago, I made a very small video, just a random video. I was flying to Italy for a vacation with my family, and I was at the airport in Dallas. I made a random video, and I just said something in my native tongue, and I just posted on TikTok. I didn't think it was going to go viral, but that video went very viral, and a lot of people started to reach out to me, and I started talking about my life. And I started getting a lot of support and love. I told them that my parents and I help out this orphanage."
 
Ayenew and his family had been supporting Empower Ethiopia and institutions like the Comboni School and the Let Us Change orphanage. He has connected with children and students in that region and has been able to use his social media platform to raise awareness and funding for the underprivileged in his native country.
 
It also took on more social importance. For the Ethiopian New Year, Ayenew decided on a project using the monetization of his TikTok account, ayenachew1738. He created a video, posted it with the promise that all proceeds from that video would go toward giving the homeless community of Hawassa a New Year's meal. The video had more than three million views and his family and friends spent the New Year preparing and delivering the food to hungry families.
 
"It made me really happy," he said. "We made that one New Year for them special, and them having food and having water and having this moment meant a lot to them and for me."
 
The success has spread. Other TikTok influencers in Ethiopia have collaborated with Ayenew to raise money for social needs, surgeries, and other situations.


OCU
Ayenew didn't start his college running career at OCU. He started in Fort Dodge, Iowa, at Iowa Central as an unproven athlete who didn't compete at the high school level. After a very cold winter in Iowa, Ayenew was ready to transfer.
 
Former track and field coach Frezer Legesse spoke with Ayenew in his native tongue and successfully recruited him to OCU.

"I think OCU has provided me with this amazing life opportunity and a great sense of community," Ayenew said. "OCU means a lot to me because I'm getting an education and I like representing them when I compete."
 
Along with his two conference titles and All-America status in cross country, Ayenew is getting his degree early and will soon begin graduate studies at OCU.
 
the way the school pushes academically is pretty impressive.

"OCU is a very well-known academic school and it pushes you, academically," he said. "Now, having a high GPA and succeeding in school and outside the classroom – I just want to achieve the best I can in every environment."
 
More to Come
The child on the bus didn't know when to get disembark or where the next turn was – like a cross country runner without course markers. But through hard work and facing head-on the emotional churnings of the unknown, Ayenew has mapped a course for success.
 
He plans to use his degrees to enter the world of business, where he will no doubt make a difference for himself and those around him.