ETHIOPIA: The Girls Gotta Run Foundation is a non-profit organisation which promotes athletic excellence through running and education to empower young women and their communities in Ethiopia. Falcon has proudly supported GGRF since 2013, providing annual funding and helping to generate a platform of promotion through our network of roaster clients around the world.
Our relationship with the The Girls Gotta Run Foundation has been continuous since 2013. Each year, we invest in their mission by sponsoring athletes individually or with operational funding.
Origin: Ethiopia (Soddo, Bekoji)
Timeline: 2013, on-going
Gender: 100% female
According to the GGRF website, “Statistics show that 1.6 million primary and secondary school aged girls are out of school in Ethiopia. That’s 2 out of 10 girls in Ethiopia. As girls enter adolescence, they are more likely to drop out of school for a diverse range of issues, including early marriage, early pregnancy, increased responsibilities at home, increased cost of school, food insecurity, limited access to hygiene facilities, sexual harassment and assault, gender bias, conflict, child labor, and lack of quality education for girls.
However, each year of education a girl completes creates change for her future, her family, and her community. Education for girls means income, health, and agency for girls and their communities.”
The United Nations Department of Economics & Social Affairs puts it even more succinctly:
“Investing in girls is the most powerful investment for development.”
To address this, the Girls Gotta Run Foundation provides full scholarships, including tuition, books, supplies, uniforms, hot meals, clean water, menstrual supplies and reimbursement for major health care needs to approximately 200 girls in Soddo and Bekoji, Ethiopia, each year.
Their female running coaches and all-girl teams teach discipline, goal setting, physical strength, and the joy of working with female peers. GGRF also provides shoes, gear, and the opportunity to compete in local and regional races.
Weekly life skills classes provide access to information and female mentorship on topics such as Women’s Health, Relationships, Human Rights and Financial Leadership. The organisation also offers financial management and entrepreneurship programs to the mothers of the girls in the programme.
Falcon has proudly supported GGRF since 2013, providing annual funding and helping to generate a platform of promotion through our network of roaster clients around the world. The program has special resonance among our roasting community, many of whom understand and promote the opportunities for socioeconomic mobility through sport, especially in and around coffee growing regions and communities. Coffee roasters and consumers have in recent years played an integral part in supporting GGRF, either by buying our coffees, running and raising money for the International Day of the Girl fundraisers, or by helping spread the word.
In 2020, Falcon made the GGRF investment more tangible by sponsoring ten young women in the scholarship program. As a way of further promoting the incredible work that GGRF does, we named ten of the exceptional lots we sourced from Mustefa Abakeno in Ethiopia during that season after each of the young women sponsored in the program.
The pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 left no community untouched, but despite this GGRF persevered, even amongst the civil conflict the country experienced. In 2021, GGRF athletes participated in various short and medium races (100 – 3000 meters). Seven girls joined clubs administered by professional international and national coaches under the regulation of regional sport commissions. Ten girls participated in regional, zonal and Woreda administrative level competitions. Three girls attended a National Girls’ Forum hosted by The Malala Foundation in Addis Ababa for five days, which included the opportunity to network with other girls. All girls succeeded in scoring good academic results and passed to the next class year.
2024 Highlights
In BEKOJI
160+ GIRLS AND WOMEN SERVED
640+ PEOPLE IMPACTED
An astonishing sixteen Olympic medals in twenty years have been won by runners from Bekoji, a small farming village in the highlands of Ethiopia. Here, running offers a means of building a better future. Girls Gotta Run has worked in Bekoji since 2014 and is the first and only non-profit organization investing in female athletes and coaches in this historic town.
RUNNING: GGRF Athletic Scholars exceled as athletes, with nine girls being drafted to full-time athletic training camps, and eight of the top runners consistently winning medals at local and regional races.
COACH FATIYA: is the first female running coach in Bekoji and provided life-changing mentorship to the girls in the program, garnering acclaim in Ethiopia and beyond.
POSTPONED MARRIAGE: 98% of GGRF girls in Bekoji have postponed marriage until at least the age 18.
EDUCATION: Crucially, 95% of GGRF participants in Bekoji are in school and have graduated, or will graduate, from 12th grade. This is well beyond the 16% rate in the Oromia Region for girls. In addition, several alumni of GGRF have graduated from university.
In SODDO
115+ GIRLS AND WOMEN SERVED
460+ PEOPLE IMPACTED
Located in Southern Ethiopia, Soddo is a town rich in culture and identity. Despite a growing economy, families in Soddo continue to struggle with limited economic opportunity and access to family planning. Since 2013, Girls Gotta Run has worked with the only all-girls school in Soddo, the Abba Pascal Girl’s School, to provide girls with the tools they need to complete their education and build a future of their choosing.
MOTHER’S GROUP: GGRF formally launched the Soddo Mothers’ Savings & Entrepreneurship Group, with forty mothers meeting twice monthly to jointly manage finances.
BUSINESS EXPANSION: The mothers opened bank accounts and a few months later they began making micro-loans.
GRADUATION: 98% of GGRF Athletic Scholars in Soddo have graduated from secondary school and postponed marriage until adulthood.
COACH AMSAL: At the start of the new school year, GGRF Athletic Scholars began working with Coach Amsal, who works with Program Manager Kidist to provide an added level of female mentoring.
UNIVERSITY STUDIES: Many GGRF Soddo alumni are now studying in university, several have graduated, and nearly all of them stay in touch with GGRF.
For more information, including videos and additional resources, please visit the GGRF website.