This GivingTuesday, we wanted to share a small snapshot of why your support matters. Because you showed up, you helped change someone’s life for the better. 

Ten years ago, when we first started our partnership with the Girls Gotta Run Foundation in Ethiopia, we provided a small but high-impact grant to start a new athletic scholars program for 15 adolescent girls at a school in Soddo. The girls were identified as the most vulnerable to being taken out of school for child marriage once they hit puberty. By offering athletic scholarships, running training was used as an entry-point to also provide life skills, regular meals, personal care items, school supplies and healthcare. It took enormous efforts for GGRF to persuade families at the time to allow their daughters to be part of the program – education was not valued for girls largely because they would be married off, or kept at home for domestic chores. 

In fact, while about 95% of girls start primary school, less than 20% complete 12th grade. Of that number, just around 5-8% enter university. 

Fast forward 10 years..and today all 15 of those girls in the initial co-hort not only graduated from high school, but are thriving and have successfully delayed marriage. Biruk Abriham, one of the 15, pictured here, just graduated from Worabe University in November with a degree in agro-economics. 

Thank you for helping her and so many others on their journeys.