"If you, dear viewers, manage to pay € 650,000 into the donation account within a week, the DaimlerChrysler Bank will double the € 50,000 donation." That was the bet of former Chief Executive of the DaimlerChrysler Bank AG, Dr. Roland Folz, in March 2003 during the ZDF gala on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Karlheinz Böhm. This appeal for donations was the starting signal for the partnership with Menschen für Menschen. Fortunately, the DaimlerChrysler Bank lost the bet – to the benefit of the Ethiopia Relief.

With its donations the DaimlerChrysler Bank wishes to provide aid for self-development, to give the kind of support that mobilises the people of Ethiopia. To this end it has for some time been supporting the Agro-Technical Training College (ATTC) in Harar. Since 2006 the DaimlerChrysler Bank has been financing the construction of the Degem Higher Secondary School in North Shoa. With 24 classrooms the grammar school will provide a secondary school education to over 1,200 young Ethiopians.