Green News!

On Monday July 29th, Ethiopians from across the country planted trees in response to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call to break the world record by planting 200 million trees in one day. The Haile-Manas Academy is proud to have joined this country-wide undertaking: we planted 150 seedlings on our campus.

Tesfaye Kifle, Deputy Head of School, organized our efforts. Tesfaye obtained seedlings from the nursery at Debre Birhan Teachers’ College and from the Debre Birhan municipality. Members of our construction crew, friends and family planted indigenous trees such as East African redwood (hagenia abyssinica) and wanza (cordia africana). Special thanks to the team at Rama Construction for helping to prepare the ground beforehand.

It's the rainy season in Ethiopia, and the cover of green is an invitation to imagine how our campus will look next fall, after we have completed the first thirteen buildings, planted many more trees and welcomed our first class of students. Just as the national tree planting is a critical investment in the country's natural resources, our school is an important investment in Ethiopia's intellectual and human resources. According to news reports, as many as 350 million trees may have been planted on Monday. We were thrilled to do our part!