Coily Girl of the Week: Gelila Bekele

Early Life:

After moving with her family to the United States as a young child, Gelila spent most of her childhood in San Francisco. She attended Roosevelt Middle School and Thurgood Marshall High School, where she was an honors student and a member of the school's basketball team. She then spent two years studying at Cornell University before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley to be closer to her family. She graduated with a bachelors degree in 2005. Gelila currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Modeling Career:

Bekele has worked with Ford Models, Pantene, Colgate, and has appeared on the cover of 'The African' magazine. She is also featured in many other print ads and has done several runway shows.

Philanthropy:

Gelila is also a humanitarian and social activist. With the success and celebrity afforded to her through her work as a recognizable model, Bekele devotes much of her time to aiding people around the world through her charity involvement with groups that help those living in third world nations attain fundamental natural resources like water. One organization that she is passionate about is simply called: Charity: Water. Some of the other charities Gelila is involved with include Kageno, Keep a Child Alive and Darfur Action Network