President of Hope University College

Twenty years of experience working with and for the poor in Ethiopia has taught me that Ethiopians don’t have to be so poor, considering the enormous potential that their country has. This insight beckoned me to think about what has gone wrong and what has led to the extreme poverty in our country. It becomes more and more clear to me that there is an enormous lack of high-quality education. A lot in the inferiority of education has to do with a lack in financial capacity. In most institutions with the ratio of staff to students being alarmingly high, there is not enough faculty attention to nurture and build young minds. The threadbareness of institutional resources amidst an unacceptably high number of students has handicapped both teaching and learning. Matters related to value maturity are not noticeable. With little or no integrated approach to student development, collegiate life has not on the whole been fully exploited.

You may know the saying: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” I hope that you will support this initiative knowing particularly its pivotal role in addressing the root causes of Ethiopia’s poverty.

Yours Truly,

Minas Hiruy, Ph.D.
President of Hope Univeristy College