Great Ethiopian Run launches 2nd edition of “Education for Girls”

Addis Ababa - Great Ethiopian Run, an Ethiopian NGO known for its annual international mass-participation road race in Addis Ababa, launched the 2nd edition of its “Education for Girls” series of community runs, a series of three events in Gambella, Assosa and Jijiga which promote messages about the education for girls in Ethiopia. The first run in the series took place in Gambella on Saturday 10th January 2009.
At the launch Haile Gebreselassie stressed the importance of giving more opportunities to girls by saying: “if a family has ten 10 children with 8 boys and 2 girls, it is better to help the two girls because the boys will always find a way of helping themselves”. Meseret Defar, also speaking at the launch, said that for girls in Ethiopia learning can help develop confidence and the feeling of being independent.
Haile and Meseret both appear in films which are being shown in schools at each of the race venues as well as at pre-race entertainment programs.
Great Ethiopian Run’s campaign to promote girls education comes at a time when the government of Ethiopia is trying to achieve 100% secondary school enrollment by 2012. Secondary school enrollment currently stands at just below 40%, but within this figure there is a big disparity between the number of girls enrolled compared to boys particularly in the regions of Ethiopia where the runs are being staged.