Run Across Ethiopia – January 6-20, 2011

A number of runners & support team members from our area have touched down in Ethiopia and on Saturday, January 8th, they join more runners and team members from around to country for the Run Across Ethiopia, a 400km ultramarathon to raise funds and awareness for Ethiopian education. DONATE HERE!

Starting on January 8, 2011 and spanning 12 days, a small group of runners will run 400 kilometers across Southern Ethiopia as part of a campaign to generate awareness and funding for education. The Run Across Ethiopia aims to raise $100,000 for Ethiopian education projects, including the construction of schools in other coffee-growing communities. You can tune in to Glen Arbor Sun Editor Jacob Wheeler who is in Ethiopia, the Run Across Ethiopia Facebook and RAE Live for daily updates including photos & video all during the run or check in at Higher Grounds or Pangea Pizza in Traverse City.

More than 600 years ago, merchants trekked through the mountains and valleys of Ethiopia to export the world’s first cultivated coffee beans, but in modern-day Ethiopia many coffee farmers and their families live in dire poverty. Education, health care, and access to water are all very limited. In the Yirgacheffe region, where some of the world’s most unique and sought-after coffees originate, little more than half the region’s children complete primary school. The adult literacy rate is 36 percent. Life expectancy is 53 years.

Here’s a great video by James & Jamaica Weston that explains the who, why and how of this effort!