GGRF Organizational Overview:

Girls Gotta Run Foundation invests in girls who use running and education to empower themselves and their communities. We use the national sport of running in Ethiopia to create safe spaces for girls to develop confidence, a social network and the tools they need to avoid early marriage, stay in school and reach their goals through healthy decision making. We provide a full Athletic Scholarship for girls to attend school, participate in our running team and complete our life skills program. For more information on our mission and impact, please visit: http://www.girlsgottarun.org

GGRF Use of Java Jog Funds:

Girls Gotta Run Foundation is the only non-profit organization in Ethiopia using the national sport of running as an innovative approach to creating safe spaces, ending child marriage and expanding access to secondary school for vulnerable girls. The GGRF Athletic Scholarship Program equips girls with a full scholarship to attend primary and secondary school, participate in the GGRF running team and complete our life skills curriculum. GGRF works with girls in 5^th-10^th grade in Ethiopia, the age at which girls have the highest risk of dropping out of school, entering early marriage and enduring other harmful traditional practices. At the end of the three-year Athletic Scholarship, GGRF provides entrepreneurial training for the girls and their parents to help families develop sustainable businesses and sources of income for the future. Parents are then able to provide for the education and health of their children and have the tools needed to become more resilient to future challenges that they may face as a family and community.

The Girls Gotta Run Foundation works in coffee growing regions of Ethiopia to build strong communities through investments in the health, education and future of girls. Women and girls are the keepers of Ethiopia’s coffee culture; picking, sorting, roasting and serving coffee throughout the country. However, limited opportunities and harmful cultural practices often leave girls disenfranchised in coffee growing regions. Leveraging two of Ethiopia’s most iconic cultural influences, running and coffee, GGRF invests in the capacity of girls to redefine the role they may have in Ethiopian culture and society. Girls graduate from the GGRF Program educated and empowered to build strong futures for themselves, their families and their communities.

The Girls Gotta Run Foundation would be honored to use funds raised through the 2015 Java Jog to provide Athletic Scholarships for girls to attend primary and secondary school, participate in the GGRF running team and complete our life skills curriculum in Ethiopia. A grant of  $9,000 to the Girls Gotta Run Foundation would be used to directly and indirectly impact the lives of 1,070 girls and family members as well as the community they are part of. The Java Jog Grant would provide 20 Athletic Scholarships for girls and micro-business grants to each of their households, directly impacting nearly 150 family members in the Wolita coffee-growing region of Ethiopia.  In addition, the grant would support the provision of a quality education to over 900 girls in primary and secondary school by investing in the teaching capacity of the Abba Pascal Girls School where the GGRF Athletic Scholarship Program is based.