Grounds for Health Earns $175,000 Starbucks Foundation Grant for Ethiopia Project

Three women at a Grounds for Health screening at Dore Bafano Primary Hospital in Sidama. Grounds for Health photo.

The Vermont-based nonprofit Grounds for Health is receiving a two-year, $175,000 grant from the Starbucks Foundation that will greatly increase the group’s programming in coffee communities in Ethiopia.

The grant represents the first time the Starbucks Foundation, which receives its funding from the company and private donations, has donated to the 23-year-old nonprofit, which runs cervical cancer screening and prevention programs in coffee-growing regions in Latin America and Africa.

“From day one, Grounds for Health’s sole focus has been to improve women’s lives in under-resourced coffee regions, “ Grounds for Health Executive Director Ellen Starr said in an announcement of the award. “This generous grant from The Starbucks Foundation will help us make a real, tangible impact in Ethiopia not only for the next two years, but for many years to come.”

The grant will support a new Grounds for Health initiative in Ethiopia whereby six new “Centers of Excellence” will be created in partnership with existing Ethiopian health institutions in the coffee zones of Sidama, Gedeo and West Guji.

According to GFH, the centers will promote best practices in cervical cancer prevention while working towards countrywide adaptation to promote life-saving methods. The group estimates that the project will directly reach 15,000 women in Ethiopia, beginning in 2020. The centers will also allow GFH to introduce a cancer treatment technology called thermal ablation, which the group describes as less expensive, easier to transport and more easily tolerated by patients.

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