Fugee Sport: The Cairo-based Sports Initiative Promoting Cross-Cultural Understanding

Before Fugee Sport began, Durand Reeves had intended to make a restaurant to create a space where students who come to Egypt from abroad can get immersed in the local culture as part of a work-study programme. Then, as with every other story this year, the Coronavirus struck, and suddenly starting a restaurant seemed like a bad idea. Reeves had to pivot and think of another way he could contact people and bridge some cultural gaps.  That's when he went all-in on Fugee Sport, a collective that hopes to increase black representation in sports and bridge the gap between not just the different nationalities of Africans within Egypt, but Africans as a whole with the rest of the world.

“For us, it’s not about the exercise,” Reeves told CairoScene. “It has been inspiring to see that so many participants don’t even prioritize the workouts but more so value the community and the friendly environment we offer.”

Having started as running community started with a humble WhatsApp group of 12 people to meet a few times a week and run anywhere between 5K to 12K in Maadi, Fugee Sport soon grew to encompass other activities like biking, football, basketball and general fitness. About 150 members of different nationalities, from Egyptians and Sudanese, to South Sudanese, Kenyans and Ugandans, have been brought together through Fugee Sport.

“We also want to elevate and educate those involved on how to create sustainable business projects," Reeves said. “There is full transparency within the group because we want participants to feeling inspired and empowered to follow their hearts and start their own initiatives. Representation means so much and them seeing us build this initiative, organically from nothing, allows them to know anything is possible if you take a leap of faith, start it, and execute.”

The initiative invites absolutely anyone who’s interested to join. If you want to know more about how to participate, you can head over to @fugeesport on Instagram.