Team DSW Ethiopia Showed Up at GLI’s Flagship Program to Plant Seedlings  

On August 3, 2026, Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) mobilised a nationwide army of volunteers from all walks of life to plant 800 million young trees in a single day of across numerous conservation areas and terrains. DSW Ethiopia responded to a call from the PHE Ethiopia Consortium and sent a team of ten to designated locations on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

The DSW team trekked along the long, curving landscapes of the terrain, where the team spent the first half of the day adding to the Green Legacy Initiative.  

With the 32^nd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP32) taking place in Addis Ababa in November 2027, the GLI has set a precedence in terms of the level of engagement, commitment and mobilisation of volunteers from every civil society organization registered in the country, including public servants, private sector employees, U.N. officials and embassy staff.

On 6 August 2026, twenty-five DSW Ethiopia staff members once again stepped up to plant tree seedlings. This time, they planted them in the forest conservation and development area in Bishoftu City, as part of the Alliance for Population, Health & Environment programme’s (APHEET) annual planned activities in Ethiopia.

In partnership with the Karl Kübel Stiftung (KKS) and financially supported by the Merck Family Foundation (MFF), the APHEET’s programme is designed to empower the young people by addressing their sexual and reproductive health needs and their livelihood opportunities, enabling them to coexistence positively with their environment.

More than 100 young people who are members of the PHE Youth Clubs under the APHEET programme, accompanied by the DSW team, came together to plant around 1,500 tree seedlings. DSW Ethiopia’s contribution to the Green Legacy Initiative campaigns continued as they defined their thematic interventions through their growing involvement in an integrated approach linking the environment with the health issues.