Recently, for the second time the Gerrit and Nel Barnhoorn Scholarships have been awarded to four Sher-school graduates. The Barnhoorn family are the founders of Sher Ethiopia and its schools. Each year 4 students are granted a scholarship that helps them to cover a large part of their study-expenses and cost of living at a university of their choice in Ethiopia. The main goal of the scholarship is to help high achieving students with disadvantaged backgrounds.

Students Taha Abu Jula, Temesgen, Solomon Sitota, Dejene Ijaro Naneso and Hana Belayhun Dilnesaw received their prizes from John Barnhoorn, son of Gerrit and Nel Barnhoorn. On behalf of his family, he congratulated the winners and thanked the Sher School teachers and supporting staff for their hard work over the past 16 years.

From all graduates, 8 students were nominated for a scholarship of whom 4 were selected. The others received a laptop. The ceremony took place in the presence of the students’ families, Sher Ethiopia managers, community elders, Sher School staff, the parents committee and officials from the Education Office and the Woreda Administration.

We thank Mr. and Mrs. Barnhoorn for their unwavering support for the Sher Schools and Hospital over the years and we are extremely proud of these students as they are a true example of the positive impact that Sher Ethiopia has on the community in Ziway and surrounding areas. We wish all our graduated students a bright future, wherever it may take them.

Sher schools in Ethiopia accommodate over 6800 students at three locations. Approximately 400 children – starting at the age of 4 – are admitted to Sher schools every year. Admission takes place on a 50-50 basis, with an equal split between the children of employees and children from the local community.

We look back with great pleasure on three exciting exhibition days at the 8th edition of the HortiFlora Expo in Addis Ababa last week. The exhibition was opened by Dr. Girma Amente, Minister of Agriculture with Mr. Mesfin Tasew, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, as guest of honor.

For us, the exhibition is a great opportunity to talk to many relations and interested parties about our farms and the way in which we sustainably produce our beautiful roses. And about our many CSR projects, including the initiative in which dried water hyacinth is used by local women to braid all kinds of products.

This year the theme was about ‘Ensuring Sustainability’ and we are proud of the awards we received from EHPEA (Gold certificate Code of Conduct) and MPS (Hortifootprint Calculator).

All in all, a successful fair, where we would like to thank EHPEA for the splendid organization and all visitors for their interest.

At Sher Ethiopia we rely on many women. All the more reason to sent warm wishes on International Women’s Day to all our amazing female employees. Thank you for all of your hard work every day. We all are extremely proud of you!

Last week a borehole was drilled at our Elementary School site in Adami Tulu. This year, construction of the first 4 classrooms will start. The new school is very near to the Sher Kindergarten that now has 350 students. Preparations have begun for the new Elementary School starting with the basics: water and electricity.

At 77 meters deep water was struck. Thanks to Christian Service International, who are helping us to improve the water availability at all our school-sites. Now we have abundant water to irrigate our trees and plants and flush the lavatories. Borehole water will also be made available, free of charge, via water taps to members of the local community.

Construction of the new Sher Elementary school will bring much needed development in terms of education, employment, and infrastructure.

Recently, three of our 8th grade students participated in a contest of innovation & creativity prepared by the Oromia Education Office. The competition was at regional level, presented as “Oromia female’s students Day.” It was hosted in Addis Ababa at the Oromia Cultural Center.

Helen Yosef, Mahilet Birhanu and Kenenitu Teshome won in the category of handicrafts. They received medals and a certificate. During the day when they were accompanied by teacher Robiti Mengasha, they were given a chance to present their works of art in front of an audience. To celebrate, they went to see the Friendship Park the next day.

Back at Sher School the girls were honored by School Management and their fellow students. Well done girls!

We are looking for a young and energetic, fluently English speaking Secretary/Admin Assistant to support the import processes and to manage the daily secretarial duties at the office in Addis Ababa.

Please click here to find more information.

Sher Ethiopia is looking for an experienced School Director of all our Sher Schools and who is a strong  professional in managing and leading schools at KG, primary, elementary and high school level.

Our current Sher Schools Director will go on retirement and our new colleague will be based in Ziway town, at 2 hours drive from Addis. And will pay regular visits to our other Schools in Tulu, about 5 km from Ziway.

Tasks and Responsibilities

The School Director of the Sher schools is responsible for a proper functioning of all the Sher schools meaning a correct and effective management according to the internal guidelines and policies of the Company and as per set guidelines of the rules and regulation of both Oromia Education Bureau and Federal / Governmental  rules. The School Director ensures that the school and all the staff is working according to the above and coordinates the necessary actions to uphold the (internal) guidelines and policies. He /she is leading the School Management Team and leads by example. The School Principles of each school – KG, primary / elementary and high school, are reporting into this vacant position.

Some of the key tasks of the Sher Schools Director are:

• Ensures national and regional education standards and guidelines are well implemented at all levels in the schools
• Verifies standards and measurements of enrolments set are achieved and fulfilled
• Verifies and ensures proper documentation and records of students are compiled, documented and kept in a modern manner
• Manages, leads, monitors and controls the school principals’ effectiveness in leading the individual Sher schools
• Plans, organizes, manages and controls the Sher schools’ overall enrolment and teaching and learning activities
• Verifies and ensures – in coordination with School Principals and other management team members –  that classrooms, teaching-learning materials, equipment, infrastructure and technologies are sufficiently availed and maintained in the schools that facilitate teaching and learning processes.
• Sets goals and expectations, strategic resourcing and planning and coordinates teaching- learning processes and development of the schools.
• Chairs, manages and leads the management team of the schools
• Timely preparation of various reports of the school to Sher management
• Attends meetings related to the school and interacts pro actively with Company executives
• Monitors school-feed are implemented in accordance with the Company policy
• Plans medium and long term development of the schools, in collaboration and coordination with the Senior Leadership team of the Company

Skills set of the candidate

• Strong leadership and management skills
• Good interpersonal communication skills
• Advanced MS office user (Word, Excel and Powerpoint)
• Good report writing and planning ability
• Ability of writing and speaking in Afan Oromo, Amharic and English language

Required qualification and experiences

• Minimum BA but preferably Masters Degree graduate in educational planning and management or related field of study
• Have minimum of 15 years of work experiences as a School Director, preferably in private or public schools.

Due Date to apply: before 1 February 2023

How to apply:  Qualified applicants who fulfill above mentioned requirements can apply in sending their application letter and CV in English to email address: hrziway@sherethiopia.com

We are very proud of our students that took part in a cleaning event around the school premises today. Members of the environmental club collected hundreds of kilograms of waste. Litter is a persistent problem in Ethiopia. Fortunately, our students show that the new generation is willing to roll up their sleeves. Well done boys and girls!

Recently we hosted a group of 48 teachers and students from Addis Ababa University. After welcoming a brief presentation was given to them about the company and the growing and logistical processes. They showed great interest in the environmental and social practices of the company. The CSR strategy and projects were explained by Mr Aswin Endeman. After the presentation and discussion, a field visit was carried out at the greenhouse, grading and wetland. At the end, the participants declared that they were impressed with Sher Ethiopia’s development on social services and environmental protection. Finally, the group thanked Sher company for their hospitality and time spend with them on such a short notice.

We want to emphasize that we like to share our story with interested people. We do require groups to make an appointment well in advance.

For Sher school we are looking for two new teachers for different subjects.

Interested? Please have a look at our job vacancies for which Ethiojobs is supporting us and apply via their website.