Please Support Cristina Cozac As She Runs the NYC Marathon for Camfed!!!

Cristina Cozac, hails from Bucharest, Romania, and lived there until she was age 22.  With a B.A. in Physical Therapy from A.N.E.F.S. University in Bucharest, Cristina excelled at professional basketball and was versatile as well: she played both forward and guard for four years while earning her B.A.. Additionally, Cristina’s athletic pursuits included biathalons consisting of shooting and cross-country skiing.   However, in Romania, Cristina realized her dreams and potential was limited and to fully realize her goals, she knew she needed to live the American dream and come to New York with the ultimate vision of when one day when she embodied the American dream, she’d like to give back so it would be also possible for other young girls to live it.

 In 1999, Cristina secured a visa to work as a waitress on the Royal Caribbean cruise line and it was the first step in the right direction of realizing the American dream.  From there, Cristina then landed in New York and stayed with a cousin and mastered the English language while from 2001-2006 she worked in various prestigious restaurants while she studied.  As her career in restaurants progressed, Cristina’s ambitions accelerated and from 2006 to 2008 while she was in the restaurant business, she acquired her M.B.A. with a concentration in General Management in order to highlight her growing skills in this arena.  

 Now that Cristina Cozac has lived the American dream and realized many of her goals, it is now time for her to give back to the world, so to that end she is running the New York City Marathon to support Camfed, an international organization dedicated to fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS in rural Africa through the education of girls and empowerment of young women.  Cozac says: “I’m full of energy and really excited about these next three to four months to train and run the marathon.  It is my first marathon and although it is a lot of work, discipline and sacrifice, I feel it will all be worth it when I reach the finish line literally in Central Park, but even more so, when the finish line is reached for the girls who benefit from Camfed.”

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RUNNING FOR GIRLS' EDUCATION IN AFRICA

This November, Cristina Cozac of Daniel NYC, will be running the ING New York Marathon on behalf of Camfed, an international organization dedicated to fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS in rural Africa through the education of girls and empowerment of young women.  Cristina is part of a team of 50 runners who will be taking on this amazing challenge to raise money to send more than 500 girls living in poverty in rural Africa to high school.

Since 1993, Camfed has fought poverty and AIDS in rural Africa by educating girls and empowering young women to become leaders of change, with 1,415,600 children in impoverished areas of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana and Malawi benefiting from their innovative education programs. Camfed uses a community-based, holistic approach. The girls Camfed supports are identified by the community as being those most in need, and a girl receives support throughout her development, from her elementary school years until adulthood. Camfed’s package of support allows her to get into school, do well academically, and maximize the value of her education after graduation so that she can lead a healthy and happy life. This comprehensive method is helping rural young women become doctors, lawyers, teachers and business owners, and they are sparking systemic change in rural Africa. The proof: Members of Cama, the alumni of young African women supported by Camfed who, in turn, have themselves supported 161,300 children through school—with their own money!

The money raised by Cristina and her teammates will go to a vital need: Sending more than 500 girls in rural Africa to high school. Because the cost of school supplies, uniforms and fees forces many girls to drop out, Camfed provides them with full four-year high school scholarships that cover everything from notebooks and uniforms to school and exam fees. It costs only $300 to send a child to school for a year in Africa.  Cristina's goal is to provide 10 girls living in poverty in rural Africa with a one-year high school scholarship.  We applaud Cristina for taking on this challenge for such a great cause and for helping to change girls' futures in Africa. 

If you would like to support her run, you can make a donation at http://us.camfed.org/goto/cristina. For more information about Camfed, visit their website at www.camfed.org.  Also, there are still a limited number of spaces left on the Camfed New York Marathon team, so if you would like to participate, please contact usa@camfed.org