Philanthropy
Support for Community Education in Addis Ababa
Derba MIDROC Cement (DMC) plc has provided 40m Ethiopian Birr (approx. $1.1m) to help build a modern school building at Mekane-Hiwot Kindergarten and Elementary School in Addis Ababa. The work has now been completed and handed over to the community through the City’s Department for Education. The donation was part of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme at Derba MIDROC Cement focused on education.
Prior to the investment, the school had only two classrooms for its kindergarten, of very poor quality and made only of metal sheets. In the morning it was too cold for the youngest children to attend class and in the afternoon it was too hot. Thanks to Derba MIDROC, the school now has a modern building with 60 classrooms, a library, an ICT Centre and a laboratory. The new building has improved the classroom-student ratio to the national standard of 40 students per classroom from the previous 70 to 80 students per classroom. The school has now been awarded ‘level 3’ standard by Department of Education inspectors.
The building is dedicated to W/ro Rukiya Mohammed Yasin, the mother of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi, Chairman and Owner of MIDROC Ethiopia. Thanks to the philanthropic investment of Derba MIDROC Cement and Mohammed, the school has been able to enrol 1500 students (500 kindergarten and 1000 elementary), an increase from 774 previously, so that more children can be educated in less crowded conditions that include a spacious playground.
As part of its wider CSR strategy, DMC has been making similar efforts in environmental protection, in ensuring social development, in expanding healthcare and in improving livelihoods, especially around its cement factory in the Derba area. The company ensures full compliance with the environmental and social standards set by the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
$3.6m Donation towards Ethiopia’s Fight against Coronavirus
Mohammed Al Amoudi recently made a donation of 120m Birr (approximately $3.6m) to the Addis Ababa City Administration in support of its fight against COVID-19. Ethiopia had 25 cases as of midday on March 31st when the donation was made. There were 82 cases reported on April 14th and more cases are expected.
This was the largest private donation to combat the disease in Ethiopia as of that date and it echoes Mohammed’s historic role in fighting AIDS earlier in the decade. Mohammed has long been committed to support for public health in Africa.
Mohammed’s companies in Ethiopia have also made or expect to make significant donations according to their means in support of Government efforts to deal with the pandemic. These initiatives are often supported by employees making individual contributions. MIDROC Technology Group and its employees, for example, separately contributed 10m Birr to the fight against COVID-19 on March 31st.
Mohammed said that, through his local management team, MIDROC Ethiopia will make available, within its means, material resources, office and factory space and product to support the fight against this new disease. He added, “Our companies can only survive and prosper if the Ethiopian people as a whole are secure and healthy and so this fight is our fight too. My companies and the people are united in this struggle.”
For more detailed information on the various contributions of Mohammed’s companies to the fight against COVID-19 in Ethiopia, go to this article in the Ethiopia Science blog.
Mohammed Al Amoudi: My Philanthropy Strategy
In an extensive and exclusive interview with Forbes' Tatiana Serafin, Mohammed Al Amoudi revealed his philanthropy strategy where he is setting the standard in the Middle East and Africa.
He outlined his focus on Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia but also his commitment to CSR in his major privately held corporations as well as a general concentration on education and healthcare projects. He has an additional interest in sport as a vehicle to encourage cultural cohesion. In the interview, he gives the background to his choice of these areas of interest which owe a great deal to his own awareness that, having received support from local communities for his business projects, then that it is only right that he give something back in return.
He also made it clear that he was personally and intimately involved in decision-making about philanthropy and that he adopted a business-like approach to the business of giving. He emphasized his commitment to making philanthropic projects more socially useful by encouraging their educational component, from investment in specialist healthcare academic appointments through to helping local farmers in Ethiopia become self-sustaining.
The entire philanthropic commitment is based on leading by example so that others will follow through with commitments of their own and he has no difficulties with long time horizons on his projects, whether in business or in philanthropy. He is also committed to monitoring the projects as they unfold to ensure that they meet whatever targets are set. He revealed that he was negotiating to partner with the Gates Foundation on food sustainability and agriculture, following successful partnership arrangements with the Clinton Foundation and with the Government of Ethiopia on healthcare,
He would not reveal precise figures on giving, confirming the discretion that is usual in regional business practice, but he did hint at the method by which he calculated appropriate levels of giving by referencing back to the Muslim principle of ‘zakat’ which is similar to the historic Christian principle of tithing.
Visit the Forbes website read the full interview.
Gambella Community Outreach
The Gambella (Ethiopia) community outreach programme is designed to encourage development and investment by members of the diaspora in North America in Gambella. The work of Saudi Star was featured in a community video and its regional project manager was interviewed. Gambella, over 770km from the capital Addis Ababa, is being presented as a ‘land of opportunity’. Great emphasis is placed on the fertility and productivity of the soil and on the commitment of the Government to investment in the region.
The Gambella community outreach programme emphasises a commitment to high levels of skills training for young men and women. This relates to a longstanding commitment of Mohammed Al Amoudi in all his businesses, inside and outside the region. According to regional President Gatluak Tut Khot, employment is a central concern for him and his administration alongside broader economic and social development for the future.
There is particular interest in developing rice production. In his interview, Seifu Wolde, Saudi Star’s regional project manager asserted: “The rice variety that is produced (in Gambella) is the latest and is of good quality and so is capable of being exported.”
Saudi Star is planning to ensure that around 50% of rice production is available to support national Ethiopian food security and to add significantly to local employment as the project expands. Mr. Wolde also refers to the extensive construction works designed to increase production by bringing water from the Alwero into the surrounding countryside which has also created further employment opportunities.
Major Relief Effort in Oromia
Responding to the current food security crisis in Ethiopia, Mohammed Al Amoudi and his family have provided, through MIDROC Ethiopia and Derba Transport, 55 truckloads of white maize, amounting to 20,000 quintals, and 20 truckloads of animal forage, amounting to over 150,000kg, to help drought victims in three of the worst affected districts of Oromia Regional State - Guji, Western Guji and Borena. This donation is part of an Ethiopians-for-Ethiopians strategy designed to encourage wider support for drought affected citizens from within the country and reduce dependence on foreign aid. The transportation costs were fully covered by using the Sheikh’s own fleet of heavy trucks to get the grain and forage quickly to where they were needed.
This is not the first of such grain donations by the Mr Al Amoudi. During past times of severe hardship, he has supported badly affected communities with donations from his agribusinesses. The latest donation was the largest in these particular districts, designed not only to relieve immediate distress but to encourage other elements in society to follow the Sheikh’s example. There has been a positive response by others to the call for support from local officials. In addition to providing emergency food and forage, Mr Al Amoudi’s agricultural firms are working to support local communities by creating sustainable and modern agricultural businesses that can serve as centres of excellence for research and technology transfer.
Update: Relief Donation Extended to Somalia Regional State
Mr Al Amoudi and his family followed up their initial relief effort with a further donation of grain and animal feed on April 29th, directed at drought victims in Ethiopia’s Somalia Regional State. This additional consignment comprised 10,000 quintals of rice, 10,000 quintals of white maize and 10,000 bales of Alfalfa animal feed at a total estimated cost of over Birr 35 million (just over $1.5m).
Regional State President Ato Abdi Mohamoud Omar referred to the donation as very significant, timely and generous and assured the donors that both the food grain and animal feed would reach to the intended communities as soon as possible. This donation was also positioned by Mr Al Amoudi’s team as a component of the Ethiopians-for-Ethiopians drought relief effort.