Java Jog Announces $23,000 in Grants to Benefit Women in Ethiopia

Grounds for Health has been working with the Sidama Coffee Famers Cooperative Union since November 2014.

Java Jog for a Cause has announced it is distributing $23,000 to two organizations working to improve the lives of women in coffee-growing communities, including $18,000 for Grounds for Health, and $5,000 for the Girls Gotta Run Foundation.

This is the third year Java Jog — a fundraising event held in conjunction with the annual SCAA Event — has raised money for groups working at origin. Last year, the event raised $35,000 for various projects being held on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and this year’s focus was growing communities in Ethiopia. The group estimates that the 2015 disbursement will affect some 3,000 women there.

The $18,000 given to the nonprofit Grounds for Health will go toward a partnership with the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU), as well as the Sidama Zone Health Department and Regional Health Bureau of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), to establish a cervical cancer screening and treatment program. Grounds for Health estimates that there are approximately 5,000 deaths from cervical cancer that could be prevented in Ethiopia in 2015. Funding will be used to reach women between the ages of 30 and 49 in the communities of the Telamo Coffee Cooperative, with education and direct provision of screening and treatment services.

Photo by the Girls Gotta Run Foundation

The $5,000 for the nonprofit Girls Gotta Run Foundation will go toward the group’s Savings Group Project, establishing savings groups with women in coffee growing regions in an effort to provide greater access to financial resources, business training and female mentorship.

Saved money will be invested back into communities through micro-loans and grants to small businesses. The proposed GGRF Savings Group Project will work directly with disenfranchised and at risk women in coffee growing regions in Ethiopia.

Some 200 runners helped raise funds for Java Jog in 2014, and the group plans to continue the event in April 2016 in Atlanta.