Above: The Girls Gotta Run Foundation-supported Simien Girl
Runners team was highlighted in a segment of the British TV
documentary “Joanna Lumley’s Nile.” (Photo – GGRF)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Sunday, May 16, 2010
New York (Tadias) – A new documentary travel series hosted by the British actress Joanna Lumley features the Simien Girl Runners, a track team supported by the Washington, D.C.-based Girls Gotta Run Foundation.
The film traces Lumley’s journey as she follows the river Nile from northern Egypt to its source. The actress encounters the young athletes near the majestic Semien Mountains during the Ethiopia segment of her exploration.
The foundation – which was profiled here on Tadias Magazine in October of 2009 along with an interview with the organization’s Executive Director Patricia E. Ortman – was established in 2006 to provide funds for athletic shoes, clothes, meals, coach subsidies, and other training-related expenses for impoverished Ethiopian girls who are training to be professional runners.
Regarding Joanna Lumley’s Nile, Dr. Ortman points out that in her otherwise captivating documentary, the narrator makes a few errors.
The popular British actress “doesn’t get everything quite right, including the name of the team, which is the ‘Simien Girl Runners’ and not ‘Girls Gotta Run’,” Ortman said in an email sent to GGRF’s supporters. “She also mistakenly credits a Debark hotel for donating after practice meals to the team, meals that in fact GGRF pays for. And the girls who hold up their ‘bad’ shoes at the meal they share with her there are not GGRF-sponsored members of the team, but girls who sometimes run with them because they would like to be members of the team.” But, she adds, “It is still fabulous footage, a heartwarming segment, and clear she is quite taken with our girls.”
In an interview with ITV.com, Ms Lumley was asked, “Who was the most interesting or fascinating person you met on the trip?” Her answer: “The Simian girl runners have stuck in my heart.”
And what was the most amazing country Lumley visited? “I think the most astonishing country was Ethiopia,” she says.
Click here to watch the video.
very inspiring …
I love what Girls Gotta Run Foundation stands for. Thank you Dr. Patricia E. Ortman for your hard work. You are investing your energy and time in developing a strong, intelligent, confident, proud, next generation Ethiopian female runners. God bless you. Educate young girls, and you will educate a nation.
Thank you.
Sara
What a stunning country! I wish Joanna Lumley would also have mentioned the Ethiopian female hero athlete double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba. Despite Lumley’s obvious mistakes, I also feel she is clearly enamored by these girls and their remarkably beautiful country. These young women maybe poor, but as testified by Ms ALumley, they come from ragged country blessed to have been born in what is perhaps the most exquisite piece of real estate in the world, the beauty of which money can’t buy. I have been to Ethiopia many times and my sentiments are fully with Joanna Lumley’s scribble on the windshield during the car wash (Ethiopian Style) – “I love Ethiopia”. Can’t wait to get back to the Simien Mountains. This time, I will make it a point to visit the Simien Girl Runners.
Thank you to all of our supporters! We could not do any of it without the support of a lot of people both in the U.S. and in Ethiopia. Thanks, especially, to our partner Mr. Fantu Gola, who donated his time and energy to put together the Simien Girl Runners team and continues to donate his time and energy to manage the team and oversee the welfare of the girls.
I love her!! I absolutely love Joanna Lumley. Ohh her voice is so soothing. In my opinion, she is quite an attractive woman. I adore the fact that she loves my birth-country Ethiopia. Despite her relatively miner mistakes in the documentary – her staff should do its homework in advance next time – I actually thought she was very respectful in her presentation of Ethiopia in general. But, most importantly, she has placed these particular girls’ team on the map. The Simien Girl Runners are now part of the attraction there.
Above all, Professor Ortman, my hats off to you for all the work you have done and all your friends and volunteers at Girls Gotta Run Foundation. As an artist myself, I am especially inspired by your creative ways of involving the community to raise funds. I will let you know when I am ready to donate one or more paintings.
Can somebody sponsor the entire team of the now world-famous Simien Girl Runners to the United States for an American Style summer training tour – Time Square & Disneyland, and David Letterman included
Why not? Nike should sponsor this inspiring event. Maybe Star Bucks (good publicity for them), Western Union (makes big dollars from biz to the country), or even Ethiopian Airlines (should donate free round-trip Ticket to the entire team). Just a thought. But it would be so heartwarming to meet them in person (perhaps our chance to snap a photo with a potential Olympic gold medalist). Who knows. Anything is possible!
And maybe they can stop by to visit Joanna Lumley in London. I am sure she can find accommodation for them for a few days in the U.K.
xoxo
Dan