For the last seven years he has researched and conducted experiments focusing on innovative, green, and affordable housing alternatives and constructing prototype buildings for lower income neighborhoods in Ethiopia. He is also the founder and Executive Editor of Building Ethiopia, the first architecture and urban scientific journal in Ethiopia. He is skilled in photography, visual communications, and graphics design. Helawi received his bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Addis Ababa University and a master’s in advanced studies in Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Upon completion of the Washington Fellowship, Helawi plans to create publications, documentaries, and platforms that focus on innovations and change by youth across Africa.