Help us Build the New School

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ትምህርት ቤታችንን እንድንገነባ እርዳን
Help us Build our School

 

We’re raising half a million dollars so that Fresh and Green Academy will have a place of its own. This is a cooperative effort between the American and Canadian Friends of Fresh & Green. Will you pitch in? All we need now is your pledge, with the funds due in June.

The school will be built on land given to the school director of 23 years, Muday Mitiku, and will allow her to redirect rental costs to programs for students and our Mothers Coop, which empowers women by teaching and employing them in local trades. 

If you pledge to donate $20,000 ($25K Cdn), we will call you a Founder and name one of the educational spaces after you. Pledge $7,500 ($10K Cdn) and you, as a Builder, get your name on the entrance hall plaque. But any amount pledged is a help. We encourage you to get your friends and family together to raise the target amounts.

Check out our plans below and pledge today. Thank you.

Make your pledge today!

Knowledge by Design

Our school design was dictated by the Ministry of Education and incorporates all of the space, technology and playground facilities you would want a child of your own to have. Have a look through our plans and picture yourself in the schoolyard – one day you may actually be there on a trip with our volunteers! (Click button below – building plans are large and may take time to load. Adobe Acrobat required, Download Acrobat Reader to download)

Browse the Plans
Canadian Not-for-Profit Granted Charitable Status

Canadian Not-for-Profit Granted Charitable Status

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We have great news from Canada as Canadian Friends of Fresh and Green Academy has been granted charitable status. This expands our reach to another 35 million potential supporters and rewards our long-time donors there with a tax credit going forward.

As in the U.S., all of our 5 board members are volunteers and they are supported by even more energetic helpers to promote Muday’s school and Mothers Coop, and many events and fundraisers are in store.

So congratulations to (l-r) Blaine, Rahel, Neil, Tsedey, Paul and Company for their determination and effort to feed and educate kids in Ethiopia whom otherwise might be trapped in the cycle of poverty. You can check out their website here.

November Visit Brings New Volunteers!

November Visit Brings New Volunteers!

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On our third visit to the school this year we had the pleasure of introducing Mr. Christopher Loreck of #Salesforce in San Francisco to our founder Muday and the wonderful community of students, moms and volunteers. This generous new participant, whom we met at #Dreamforce2018 was keen to explore the warm Ethiopian culture and history and made an instant connection with our kids and the people who make Fresh and Green Academy run.

Over the course of a week, Christopher sponsored a student with HIV, also sponsored the single mother Zebib who was our guide in her university pursuits, and came up with an array of ideas to solve our ongoing challenges. And hey, the humble operators who manage the all-powerful Salesforce customer resource management platform at Friends were thrilled to have a Solutions Engineer at their side to pepper with technical questions all…week…long!

We also ran across Cathie Miller, a Canadian nurse practitioner with an adventurous spirit who joined us to get an in-depth look at the school, do some triage (a daily need with 250 boisterous youngsters), and left with stories and scarves to spread to her co-workers and friends. Cathie added a lot of energy to our last day to cap off a great trip, so thanks, guys, for coming to visit!

We encourage anybody who thinks they might like to explore our world, including scaling a 3,000 foot volcano to see the monastery and caldera lake at the top (and getting stuck 4 times on Mount Zuqualla!) to contact us about visiting Fresh and Green Academy. We guarantee it will change your outlook and display the hope and beauty of our planet.

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Do You Believe in Miracles?

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Our school needs to buy the land that it sits on or we’re out. Homeless.

Due to current events in Ethiopia, things were put on hold for a few months. Now that things are better, the owner of the land the school sits on is moving forward with the sale of the land. He has a new buyer lined up if we do not make the purchase in four weeks! We are still $219,000 short.Please help us raise the rest of the amount needed, by making a donation and spreading the word! Tweet, post, intsa. Tell your friends! Together we can keep the kids from having to go back into the streets to beg for food.

Click to Help Us Buy the Land

Fresh and Green Academy has been taking impoverished kids off the street in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for 16 years. The school educates and feeds these children at no cost to their poor, mostly single parents. With the help of Friends of Fresh and Green, a New York-based 501 (c)(3) non-profit, the school has managed to grow from a simple Pre-K and Kindergarten to now include Grades 1-8.

Relying completely on donations, the school has faced rising rent costs and the land has recently been sold to a new owner. Fortunately, this generous individual saw the good work that the school was doing in breaking the cycle of poverty, and has offered to sell the land to the school.

So we need you to help with a Miracle: raise $219,000 before May 20th so Fresh and Green Academy can buy the property it sits on. Otherwise, the land will be sold and developed and we will have to find another location that will be even more expensive or charge the kind of rent that will put it out of business and put the kids and their parents back on the street.

Please help us with any amount you can. it is people like yourself who are able to put us over the top with a US tax-deductible donation. Thank you so much!

Click to Help Us Buy the Land

 

The Power of Personality by Neil Jones

The Power of Personality by Neil Jones

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How did I end up in the middle of Africa? This was not even on my radar 3 months ago. Wasn’t Ethiopia the place where they had that terrible famine when I was a kid? Surely it’s better now but why would I want to go there? The answer: personality.

The first personality I encountered was Trish Hack-Rubinstein, at a bus stop in outer San Francisco. The kind of idle conversation where somebody casually mentions that they have a Non-Profit Organization in their pocket (run largely from an iPhone). This person radiates an energy that affects everyone within speaking distance, and suddenly we are learning in leaps and bounds about Ethiopia’s history and the challenges they face.

And then a huge collection of gregarious, generous and kind-hearted personalities at a fund-raising event in New York City, and I’m hooked! I once met Mr. Munroe Ashkenase, who founded Foster Parents Plan (now Plan Canada). His favourite expression was, “I never met a man who didn’t want to help – you just had to make it easy for him.” Well these people were making it easy for me.

Just over a month later, I have navigated the customs and immigration hall of Addis Ababa airport clinging to my only clue: “Someone will be there to pick you up.” That someone was the personality that created this whole enterprise: Muday Mitiku. Constantly in motion, keeping an organization the size of a village in her head (and on her mobile phone), she is a wonder to watch. Her staff and family provide seamless support.

And finally I meet the collective personality whom I knew before only in pictures: the beautiful children who make a stranger feel like he is part of the family. The characters! The laughter! The schoolyard games! If only I spoke their language as well as they speak mine – but they will teach me, throughout the course of a week. Amharica kwanka tamari naw – I am a student of Amharic.

I am the beneficiary of the generosity of all of these personalities, these perfect hosts. That is why I do my small part to help with their challenges.