Nestled inside the 34-square kilometer rolling forests of Rwanda’s Gishwati-Mukura National Park is a troop of 20 chimpanzees who live alongside thriving populations of golden monkeys and mountain monkeys (visitrwanda.com). Located in Rwanda’s Western Province, the Gishwati-Mukura NP and its surrounding villages have been populated largely by refugees after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis. However, what makes this corner of Rwanda unique is the tremendous conservation efforts of the Forest of Hope Association (FHA), a Rwandan-based non-governmental organization (NGO) whose mission includes preserving and conserving the forest and its special primate inhabitants. In pursuit of that mission, they also need to create sustainable opportunities for the human residents who live outside of the boundaries of the park.
Land locked in East Africa in the “Lakes Region,” Rwanda is sometimes called the “land of a thousand hills,” which makes for tremendously beautiful landscapes but not a lot of flat ground. Globally, every sport does not necessarily need a level playing field (skiing or mountain biking or the Coopers Hill Cheese Roll) but sports like soccer, football, rugby, and basketball definitely do. Thousands of hills explains why Rwandas greatest export’s are tea and coffee; and, also why the Rwandan National Football team is one of 134 countries to have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup; and, qualified only once for the African Cup of Nations (in 2004).
Level Playing Phields (LPP) isn’t about making professional footballers; it’s simply about making the world a better place through sport and play; an essential activity to promote cognitive and physical growth. LPP aims to level the fields between the Philadelphia suburbs and the villages around the Gishwati-Mukura NP by supporting local community initiatives in both Rwanda and Southeastern Pennsylvania in the designing, building, and maintaining of athletic fields, specifically mini-soccer pitches, through the sharing of resource capital — both human and financial.
For more information about the Gishwati-Mukura National Park, check out the Shinehouse Gishwati Research Station (https://