Ethiopia has a great tradition of producing the best runners in the world. In the 1960 Olympics, Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the gold medal in the marathon event running bare foot. Ever since Abebe's victory, a number of best runners have been breaking world records at every level notably the 10K and the Marathon events. The new marathon world record was set just last year by Haile Gebreslasse at 2:04:26 which is an unbelievable 4:45 per mile pace.

However, most elite Ethiopian runners have a modest beginning. Running bare foot when they were children in the country side is common. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world due to a devastating civil war lasting over 30 years among others. Having a pair of shoes let alone a pair of running shoes is a luxury for most. The potential elite runners are training in a better condition under the many clubs organized to recruit potential champions. There are many runners that have the potential to be the best in the world practicing their running with shoes in a very poor condition if they have shoe at all.

On the other hand, serious American runners have the privilege to change running shoe every 3-5 months or 400-500 miles of running. A lot of usable running shoe can be found occupying considerable garage space in every house hold. There are no recycling programs in the NW to use these running shoes except the Nike program which collect unusable shoes, grind them, and use them to make running tracks in schools around the country. The Ethiopia Project strives to fill this gap by collecting new and usable running shoes in America and fit them to the needy runners in Ethiopia. The Ethiopia Project (EP) aims to assist these Ethiopian runners to be the best they can be.

It is all started when Berhanu and family traveled to Ethiopia in the summer of 2006. Berhanu was practicing for the Portland Marathon at the time. On his morning runs in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, he encountered so many young runners at a large public square called Meskel Square, sprinting without a decent running shoe. On February 4th 2007, back in Portland, a conversation with Andrew Buswell of Fit Right Northwest about this experience and running shoe recycling programs sparked the idea of helping needy runners. This is how the Ethiopia Project was born. It will be a great pleasure to help bring the best out of those needy runners in Ethiopia.

Purpose & Goal of EP:
The Ethiopia Project is a Portland based non-profit organization established in 2007 with a goal of collecting new and gently used running shoes and fit them onto aspiring Ethiopian runners. The purpose of this project is also to help develop the many running talents that may have the potential to be the world best. The goal of this project is to provide as many running shoes and running apparel as possible every year. The first shipment is planned to be delivered in June of 2009. We are expecting to deliver 2000 to 3000 pairs of running shoe in the first delivery.

Organization (EP):
The Ethiopia Project is run by volunteers dedicated on promoting running and helping to produce the best runners in the world just for the love of running. It has a 7 member board of directors. The board consists of an Ethiopia Representative, a Marketing Director, a Database Administrator, a Web manager/designer, Budget/Treasurer, a Volunteer coordinator, and a Race Director. The board of directors meets regularly once a month to plan the activities.

They devote countless hours for the success of this project. Their activities include but not limited to organizing shoe drives, organizing races, recruiting sponsors, finding donors, promoting running, designing web site, organizing fundraising among other things. The Ethiopia Project day is one of the shoe drives sponsored by our partner Fit Right Northwest running shoe store in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. The above picture shows the first shoe drive in 2007 where volunteers collected over 500 pairs of running shoes and a few boxes of running apparel. A shoe cleaning party is organized as needed to clean and sanitize the gently used shoes and prepare it for shipping. The Run Your Shoes Off 5mile & 5k running event is organized in Portland Oregon in August of every year to collect running shoes and to raise enough fund to enable us to cover transportation costs.

For more information, contact Andrew Buswell at ep.andrew@gmail.com. For information on how you can become a part of The Ethiopia Project or general inquiries about volunteering, contact Kylie Holland at ep.volunteer@gmail.com.