MUTSHAKA

Great conversations this week with colleagues in Bahrain, Canada, India, Morocco, Qatar, and the UAE on how to develop community sport – including boxing, football, walking and running – to simply make lives better and communities stronger. Stitching these local initiatives together begins to give me a sense of how global community can be built from the grass roots.

A conversation with Alain MUKIRANYA in the DRC was particularly striking and I’d love others to hear about his work and impact.

Alain is a wildlife officer at Maiko National Park in the DRC. He set up MUTSHAKA events, held every Saturday in the villages bordering the park. These 5k – 10k runs bring together park rangers for solidarity, for physical and for mental health. And they also bring together rangers with local communities, officials, police and army to break down barriers, build relationships, educate on conservation and so much more.

Alain hopes to scale this across other national parks in the DRC and potentially inspire other park rangers across the continent to do similar, understanding the power of these events to help individuals, promote conservation whilst building community cohesion. I look forward to seeing where we can cooperate and support.

He also organises football tournaments between local primary schools, using sport to educate around conservation and to create a space where rangers and the community can come together in a positive space, helping to build trust and to resolve grievances. Brilliant.