Partnering with Girls Gotta Run Foundation
At Sucafina Specialty, we believe that Specialty is more than coffee quality, it is an approach that focuses on creating value across the supply chain. One way we’re focusing on returning value to origin is with our #CreateGoodCoffee program where we are pledging to donate a portion of our profits from every kilogram of selected Ethiopian coffees we sell. These funds go directly to the Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF) and the many programs they support.
Why It Matters
In Ethiopia, across almost every region, early marriage is the most common reason that girls lose access to education. Even though it’s illegal to marry girls under 18, the practices is still widespread. A mixture of factors, including the pull of tradition, privations of poverty and fear of violence push many young women into early marriages.
The Tools to Stay in Schools
GGRF offers girls and their families an alternative to early marriage by providing athletic scholarships paired with a holistic, life-scale approach for vulnerable girls ages 11 to 18. Each scholarship helps a girl attend secondary school for a year. It also provides healthcare for her and her mother as well as meals, school books, tutoring and access to sanitary facilities. The program helps girls acquire important life skills that will help them throughout their lives, including family planning, financial literacy, nutrition, healthy relationships and more.
Together, GGRF has helped girls at schools in Soddo and Bokoji, Ethiopia achieve extremely high graduation and matriculation rates compared to the rest of the nation’s schools.
100% of the GGRF scholarship recipients who graduated 12th grade in 2019 went on to university. “[This] is incredibly inspiring considering only 10% of girls enroll in college in Ethiopia. These students have gone on to study a variety of topics including accounting, biology, humanities, and journalism,” said Kayla Nolan, GGRF’s executive director.