Gambella ready to host the 2015 MDG Race
Press Release
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Registration for the 2015 MDG Race which is taking place in Gambella is closing few days before the race unlike other regional towns where registration will not close even on race day. On 11th January 2015 thousands of running enthusiasts will take part in the 5K run supporting the message “Empower Women, Empower a Nation.”
Great Ethiopian Run is successfully organizing the MDG races since 2011 in cooperation with the UN and last year the races took place in Arba-Minch and Axum and attracted more than 4000 participants.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. The UN is also working with governments, civil society and other partners to build on the momentum generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.
This upcoming MDG Race will promote the third MDG goal namely gender equality and empowering women. Even though significant results have been achieved, for example fighting Malaria and HIV Aids and increasing primary school enrolment, according to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2014 challenges remain amongst others with regard to gender equality, access to child and maternal health care and women’s political participation.
UN Ethiopia has partnered with Great Ethiopian Run to promote these important messages using sport and community outreach programs throughout Ethiopia. By organizing the MDG race in Gambella, Great Ethiopian Run will raise interest, and awareness, will put women empowerment topics on the public agenda, and thus acts as springboard for action and change.
UN representatives, government officials from Gambella as well as popular actors from the TV series Dana are invited to attend the event and to promote the message.
About Great Ethiopian Run
Great Ethiopian Run, an independent event management company with the mission of staging mass-participation running events in Ethiopia, was started in 2001. In recent years our focus has been on taking mass-participation races to all corners of
Ethiopia, developing capacity in the office, event teams which are staffed by Ethiopians, and working with sponsors on a range of publicity campaigns. Since its inception in 2001 Great Ethiopian Run has staged over 80 races in different parts of Ethiopia.
Source: Great Ethiopian Run
