The children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the late Hajj Hummed Ibrahim Neberai (رحمه الله) of Keren, Eritrea, launched this scholarship fund in July 2016, as a perpetual voluntary charity (صدقة جارية), on behalf of their ancestor for the benefit of deserving Eritreans seeking higher education.
Hajj Hummed Ibrahim Neberai was born in 1914 to a prominent family of the Blin of Keren and died in 1982 in his birth town. He completed the rudimentary elementary education that was available in Keren during the middle part of the Italian colonial period. He continued to teach himself, exploiting every opportunity that availed throughout his life. He was a fluent speaker of Arabic, Italian, English, Tigrinya, Blina and Tigre, and, read and wrote primarily in Arabic and Italian.
Hajj Hummed was one of the first local entrepreneurs of Eritrea to engage in the export of peanuts (groundnuts) to Europe in commercial quantities. He was also a founding investor of the first and most successful Gum Arabica export company of the region, the Eritrean Gum Arabica Company (شركة اللبان الإرترية) of which he was the CEO until he died. Hajj Hummed was a founding member of the Islamic endowment of Keren (أوقاف) and its only local donor of commercial real estate. Hajj Hummed was also a founding member of Keren city’s oldest Islamic School (معهد الدين الإسلامي في كرن).
Hajj Hummed was a kindhearted philanthropist and a devout family man. He was kind and attentive to the young and the old, generous with his money and sage advice. Many a Kerenite, Christian and Muslim, old and young, has benefited from Hajj Hummed’s generosity, encouragement and advice. Above all, though, he was known for his devotion to education, especially his unwavering advocacy of the unrestricted right of Muslim girls to education at a time when this was far from the prevailing social norm.