15 Nov 2019

Changing the Game for the Women and Girls of the Serengeti

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This year’s event – the second in this series of Safaris with a Purpose – has just wrapped up and was a resounding success. This all-women run across the Serengeti wilderness raised funds and awareness for the Grumeti Fund’s girl and women empowerment programmes; a range of initiatives specifically aimed at providing opportunities for women in conservation, local commerce and community leadership.

The challenges of daily life for women and girls in rural Tanzania are myriad. Limited access to education, cultural marginalisation and poverty are just some of the forces impacting their potential. In an effort to address this, the Grumeti Fund works in more than 20 villages close to Singita Grumeti to engage and uplift local girls and women through a variety of development projects.

The participants in the Serengeti Girls Run each make a sizeable, once-off donation to the Grumeti Fund and help to raise awareness for the cause. Each contribution assists in funding numerous outreach programmes including scholarships for local girls in secondary school, vocational studies and university, training girl mentors and providing life skills and internships as well as enterprise development training for women and environmental education for girls from local secondary schools.

In return, the runners experience not only the profound satisfaction of knowing they have made a difference in the lives of their Tanzanian contemporaries, but also a sense of immense personal and physical achievement for having traversed one of Africa’s most iconic landscapes on foot.