In October 2014 the Nike Project Foundation supported Girl Hub Ethiopia for an evening of celebration and inspiration decorated by coloured outdoor lanterns!
Girl Hub is a collaboration between the Department for International Development and the Nike Foundation, designed to offer support and development to young girls in Rwanda, Nigeria and Ethiopia to empower them to live a life free of poverty, abuse and arranged marriages. The first step for these girls is to complete education to give them the potential to develop the working life of a woman and earn money for herself and her future. An important message from Girl Hub to the young ladies they work with is that it is OK to want to achieve more in life, to be seen and heard, that they have a voice and they should marry and start a family only when they feel ready to.
The event was attended by Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and HRH The Princess Royal. Guests were asked to make pledges to keep progressing the work that Girl Hub has started and to do more for Ethiopian girls in their own line of work or industry. The young girls of Ethiopia made their own pledges too which included their aims, goals and aspirations in life; writing them on to cards which were then suspended to the bottom of nylon hanging lanterns which The Hanging Lantern Company were very proud to provide for such an inspiring evening.
Girl Hub senior creative specialist, Romilly Martin, contacted The Hanging Lantern Company in September 2014 looking for a variety of brightly coloured outdoor lanterns to suspend around the site using clear wire to create a floating effect. The vision behind this concept was to symbolise the Ethiopian girls’ pledges rising up towards the sky, a sense of freedom and moving forwards to the next step. The bright colours such as yellow, red, fuchsia and turquoise reflect warmth and strength and bring vibrancy to the surrounding scenery.
A successful night enjoyed by all showing how far the project has come in the last 18 months and just how much they have to look forward to in the next few years with new challenges and task ahead.