Fifty five years ago, Ethiopia was a slightly different place for farmers. Agriculture was and remains to this day the economic mainstay of the country. The farmers were mostly illiterate. We have higher literacy rate among farmers now, than ever before. Options for health care, education and other public services were rare. These areas have also somewhat improved. All the same, in Ethiopia, true today as fifty years ago, he/she who has the farmer has the country.

At any rate, in 1969, before some of the improvements were made to the life of the Ethiopian farmers that a French Priest, Father Henri Raven (1920-2009), and some other Ethiopian and French men came together to start a nonprofit organization that went on to help improve the lives of rural farming communities by creating groundbreaking programs. In due time, the organization became the comprehensive and successful indigenous civil society organization we all know today; an organization on the lips of every Ethiopian farmer whose life it has touched.