Projects in Ethiopia 2025

This project started quite a few years ago among the Gumuz, a tribe in northwest Ethiopia. The project leader for this project, Feru, started in perhaps the most difficult area of Ethiopia to begin a project. Having no experience in agro-foresty and starting with a nomadic tribe that were hunters and gatherers- killing every living thing within 50 miles of their villages- it seemed destined for failure. However, miraculously the project completely turned around the trajectory of the tribe by training model farmers where they now value trees, grow fruit trees, run their own tree nurseries and have planted millions of trees. Feru has persevered with the Forestry project and has expanded it into 5 new areas of Ethiopia and has been requested by other tribes and other areas to expand into their regions as well. He has won many awards both at local and federal levels.

The new areas are in North Shoa, Gurage, Hawassa, Bahirdar and Dessie (planned for 2027). He has also received requests for AFAR and Oromo regions.

The project has also encompassed education, water, peace and reconciliation conferences, starting churches, and relief for thousands of displaced due to insecurity, war and persecution.

Be part of this amazing work that is expanding throughout Ethiopia in transforming lives and livelihoods.

New Hope’s vision is to help break the cycle of extreme poverty and bring freedom and hope to people (especially women) trapped in incredibly difficult and discouraging circumstances. New Hope forms, trains and funds VSLA groups, (Village Savings and Loan Associations). Our leaders mentor these groups so that they learn to self-administer and take turns taking loans from a grant provided to get them started and also from money that each member contributes weekly to the group. This group’s collective savings, and start up grant, enables them to start and grow small businesses and also to take loans for emergencies – like the need for medicines.

In 2025, New Hope was able start 81 new VSLA groups – which means about 1,620 more impoverished women will get a chance to start/grow a small business and begin to change their lives! We are very grateful to everyone who contributed to help make it possible for women in need to find hope and start a new life.

The first image is a New Hope VSLA in the Addis Region.  They are showing their bank books as proof that they are not only able to provide for their daily needs now, but they are also able to put money into savings!

The second image is a New Hope VSLA woman working at her small business of selling lettuce.

The third image is Birkie, working at her small business selling oil and making and selling fresh pancakes.

The Newlivelihood project provides vocational training to help young women learn a skill, such as hair-dressing, food preparation, garment design and tailoring in order to find employment to be able to provide for themselves and their families. These are often young women at risk of getting involved in the sex trade just because they can’t find any other way to survive.

In 2025, Newlivelihood was able to train 100 young women (and some men) in hairdressing, barbering, garment design, sewing machine repair and tailoring. This training gives them the chance to learn a life-changing, employable skill! In addition, Newlivelihood sponsored 35 orphans.

We are so thankful for all who gave in order to give these young women the opportunity to take this training and change their lives!

The first image is 3 young ladies are all deaf. They are learning sewing from a teacher who is also deaf. She is a former student who excelled greatly and earned a spot as an instructor.

The second image is Mekdes at her place of employment. She was able to secure this job after taking Newlivelihood’s Vocational Training in Sewing.

The third image is Worke who successfully graduated from Newlivelihood’s Vocational Training in Hair Dressing and then found employment at a Salon.

As a not-for-profit private school in Wolkite, Ethiopia, the Sagome Learning Center includes classes from kindergarten to Grade 8. As a project of DevXchange International, Sagome Scholarship helps the school with funding to provide free or discounted tuition for low-income students and girls.

At 800 students for the 2025-26 school year, registration at the school is up significantly from last year. About 100 of those students have been awarded full or half scholarships — the equivalent of 64 full scholarships.

Growing attendance in recent years has put great pressure on class size and classroom space. The Sagome Scholarship program is helping to solve that dilemma. A campaign launched in 2023 will help to construct a new two-classroom building. The program raised the base funding for that project and work was expected to begin in 2024.

Construction, however, was delayed by unrest in the area. Those disruptions have settled and the school began building the new classrooms in the fall of 2025.

While continuing to raise funds for the 2025-26 school year scholarships, Sagome Scholarship hopes to see completion of the new classroom construction project. The project may also help the school’s administration and the school community fund finishes and furnishings for the classrooms.

In northern Ethiopia, in the region of Tigray, a remarkable moment of hope recently unfolded. At Shire Bible College, the first class of students graduated from a pioneering Competency-Based Theological Education (CBTE) program while a new class of students was welcomed to begin their training. In a region still recovering from the devastation of war, these events represent more than academic milestones—they are signs of healing, rebuilding, and the work of God raising up a new generation of leaders. The competency-based approach required a practicum for each course supervised by a team of mentors, one of whom was from the student’s own church. Students gained skills in trauma healing, entrepreneurship, peace and reconciliation, feeding programs, conservation agriculture, teaching English to children, and youth mentoring among others. A team from Canada was able to be present to help celebrate the graduation and the start of the second batch of students in the two-year program.

In 2025, the Mushroom Project continued expanding its impact by supporting families in Ethiopia with sustainable, home-based mushroom farming. Training programs equipped participants—particularly women—with the skills to grow mushrooms using locally available materials, creating a reliable source of both nutrition and income. Mushrooms, with their fast growth cycle of just 2–3 weeks, allowed families to generate earnings quickly, often producing up to four times the income of traditional crops. Alongside production, the project strengthened local knowledge in hygiene, handling, and small-scale business practices to support long-term success.

At the same time, the project advanced its broader environmental and livelihood goals through its seedling nursery initiative, working toward the cultivation of tens of thousands of seedlings to help restore degraded land and support food security. Infrastructure improvements, including the development of the growing facility, helped increase production capacity while reducing waste by repurposing spent mushroom substrate. Despite rising costs and the challenges of reaching remote communities, the project remained focused on expanding access, strengthening local economies, and supporting families in building more stable and self-sufficient futures.