“I learned that every human is equal. Women are even to men.”
Think about the power of a program that helps 14-year-old Betelhem Tegegn learn she is valuable, strong and equal to her male peers.
That’s Girls Gotta Run.
We interviewed Betelhem during our last trip when she had just started the three-year athletic scholarship program. Girls Gotta Run uses running – a big source of national pride in Ethiopia – to give young women agency, a network of friends and peers, school tuition, uniforms and healthy food.
It’s been amazing to see the development of the young ladies in this program. Through training sessions, team meals, and life skills, they begin to dream.
The girls want to go on to high school, preparatory school, and university or college.
Betelhem wants to take management classes in the future.
Every time we interview athletic scholars at the Abba Pascal School for Girls, it becomes apparent that the Girls Gotta Run Foundation is incredibly successful at building leadership skills and social connections among young women.
You hear these elementary and high school students begin to dream.
“Before, people were thinking men were better than women. Women were doing inside tasks,” Tegegn told us when we asked about how her outlook changed after joining the athletic scholarship program.
She’s now in her third year in the program. Mothers with a Heart sponsors 45 girls in this program, including 26 in the traditional three-year Girls Gotta Run scholarship and 19 more than are moving on to preparatory school.
Thank you for empowering girls like Betelhem.
For more information about Girls Gotta Run: https://www.motherswithaheartforethiopia.com/girls-gotta-run