Past program · Hase Gola and the Yirgacheffe coffee highlands, Ethiopia
Education Access in Ethiopia
Hase Gola communities partnering with On the Ground have constructed four schools, which benefit as many as 4,200 students. Additional collaborative efforts in Ethiopia have resulted in a new library, latrines, and a school lunch program.
On the Ground's work in Ethiopia began with the Run Across Ethiopia in January 2011, when a team of American and Ethiopian runners ran 10 marathons in 10 days from Addis Ababa to Yirgacheffe, through the heart of Ethiopia's coffee-growing highlands, to raise funds for schools in the communities where On the Ground's fair trade roasting partners source their coffee.
The run exceeded its original goal of $175,000, ultimately raising more than $200,000 — enough to build three schools, a library, and latrines, and to launch a model that would define On the Ground for years to come. Thanks to the publicity around the run and new donors who joined the cause, On the Ground was able to raise funds years later to build a fourth school.
Education access was the organizing principle of the work here: buildings are only useful when children can reach them and stay in them, so the projects extended to sanitation facilities and a school lunch program requested by the communities.
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Final results
What this program delivered
- Schools constructed with Hase Gola communities
- 4
- Students who can be served by those schools
- 4,200
- Raised by the 2011 Run Across Ethiopia
- $200,000+
- Marathons in 10 days, Addis Ababa to Yirgacheffe
- 10
This program is part of our history
Explore where On the Ground is working today and how past community-led partnerships shaped our current programs.