As she chases her goal of qualifying for the 2010 Olympics,tiffany money clips, an Eau Claire Memorial High School graduate who recently finished school at the University of Minnesota is trying to raise money to support Ethiopians with similar dreams.
Ariella DePrenger-Gottfried recently returned from a monthlong trip to the impoverished East African country with memories she won’t soon forget. She stayed in a small room with cement floors and no running water. Privacy was nonexistent, and homeless people lined the streets.
"I had never seen such a multitude of poverty in one place," she said.
As a member of the track and cross country teams at the U of M, DePrenger-Gottfried first was introduced to the idea of going to Ethiopia when Dana Roskey of the Tesfa Foundation spoke to the teams.
Roskey started the foundation after his Ethiopian fiancee, who was studying in the U.S., was killed in a car crash. Her dream was to go back to Ethiopia and build a school. Roskey kept that dream alive.
The Tesfa Foundation provides early childhood education to disadvantaged children in Ethiopia, where no public preschool or kindergarten is available. Since 2004, Tesfa has built seven schools in the country.
Roskey discovered that many teenage girls living in Ethiopian cities had moved from rural areas to pursue the goal of becoming famous long-distance runners. While in the cities, Roskey found that many of the girls did not have access to education and often ended up on the streets or became victims of sexual violence.
As a runner, Roskey started Team Tesfa,tiffany rings, a professional running team that uses donations to provide scholarships for its athletes.
"I really had no idea until I started meeting some of the teenage girls that were trying to be runners what their struggle was," Roskey said. "The one thing that unites a lot of these girls is their dream of running."
DePrenger-Gottfried, the third U of M athlete to participate in the Tesfa program, said some of the girls believe they do not need education, because becoming a star of the national pastime would provide a means to an end.
"One of the things the organization tries to do is to give these girls a small stipend so they are able to go to school, because (Tesfa) feels education is very important,tiffany bangles," DePrenger-Gottfried said.
Education, including housing and food, costs about $1,200 a year in Ethiopia, she said.
Now that she is back in the States, DePrenger-Gottfried is hoping local businesses will sponsor Team Tesfa athletes.
"I thought that Eau Claire would be a really cool place to start,tiffany cuff Links," she said. "I know a lot of people there, and the running community is great."
Hanson can be reached at 715-830-5832, 800-236-7077 or rob.hanson@ecpc.com.