Al Tadamun “Made in Kuwait” – our city

Part of the expedition that will travel to Uganda, in the heart of the African continent.

Alcoy is the origin of the Solidarity Project leaving this week for Uganda, an African country located in the Rift Valley, in the heart of this continent, on the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya, the two global powers of athletics in the middle and bottom world. One of its most important cities, Kapchorwa, is located in a natural paradise at more than 2,000 meters in altitude and is considered the silent factory of African athletics today, capable of producing many of the most important long-distance runners of today, It is a destination across Africa, inThat even before the pandemic he was working in Ethiopia, but due to the political instability in the country, officials were forced to think in other directions, in this case the neighboring country, currently in the fashion world, due to the success of Ugandan athletes.
This NGO is headed by Jordi Rigg, of Alcoy, an outpatient physical and sports therapist, who for years, specifically since 2014, has wanted to combine his two passions: sport through two aspects, competitiveness and lifestyle, and professionalism as a physician. and coach. The spark that ignited this side of solidarity came a year ago, in 2013, as TV companion Jesus Kaleja, trying to contribute his experience so that this adventurer could complete the Awassa Marathon in Ethiopia, one rule, with a few weeks of preparation for the episodes of the series in which he starred in That time in quattro.
This experience did not leave indifferent Jordi Rigg, who after a year decided to set up Runners for Ethiopia on his own, in collaboration with Endoethiopia, a specialized travel company in that country that was the gateway to implement his solidarity project to help Ethiopian athletes, in the way he could do best: applying his life Long career and experience as a physiotherapist with medical supplies and training of physicists in that country. To this part of training and improvement with the new equipment was added the most romantic part of the project, helping the athletes with sports equipment, especially sneakers, and moving to the most relevant races in the Valencian community to explain their initiative and try to ensure that the athletes participated famous participants by donating With second-hand sneakers that were later distributed in Ethiopia.
The project was merging and growing to the point that athletic shoe companies got involved, in the same way that health companies also wanted to collaborate, providing cutting-edge and completely new materials. Social networks also acted as speakers and not only physiotherapists from different parts of National Geographic signed up for the trip, but also contestants wanted to live the experience of being able to train, live together, and travel in regions where world and Olympic champions and medalists were forged.

new scenes
He advised the epidemic and the political situation in Ethiopia, a country too unstable and complicated for the visitor, to turn to the project that set other scenes, also in the African continent and that natural paradise that is the Rift Valley, to go to visit the neighboring country, and thus runners were born to Uganda.
“We turned, we thought, in Ethiopia, a country that has captivated so many of us, but in the moment that governs, the political situation of that nation advises us to take other directions and after considering the matter sufficiently, we have begun a new stage in Uganda. They were also the ones who came in search of us. They knew With our work and from our side there was no problem,” explains Jordi Rigg, the promoter of this solidarity project since its inception. Only a year ago, in November 2020, there was the first survey to see if the project could be implemented in a new country under the same conditions that it had been developed with remarkable success in Ethiopia for six consecutive years. The relationship between the two parties reached such a point that elite Ethiopian athletes traveled to our city for treatment at Jordi Rig Clinic.
As godfathers for this new phase of the Solidarity Project, there are two excellent classes from world athletics, Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplemo.Located on the slopes of Mount Elgon, two of the best long-distance runners of today and originating from Kapchorwa, are the cradle and factory of an extraordinary generation of athletes who have begun to discuss the long-distance supremacy of Ethiopia and Kenya in track and field athletics.
Its location at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters makes Kapchorwa an ideal place for altitude training, not only because of the tranquility and natural beauty of the place, but also because of its mild climate, hills, food, and absence of pollution. Many of its streets are unpaved. An expedition of fourteen people among physiotherapists, runners and volunteers who wanted to join the first edition of runners in Uganda, is planning to travel there.

It is scheduled to leave on Saturday 27 Return will be on Tuesday 7 December. A full nine days ago they will interact, in addition to the athletes from this country, also with the physicists who will contribute the knowledge and materials provided by the Spanish companies.
While staying at Kapchorwa It is scheduled to sign the first agreement to build the first physiotherapy clinic in the country. With him in place, any Spanish doctor who wishes to participate in this NGO will be offered the possibility of moving to Uganda with a paid residency in that country.
Each member of this first expedition for runners in Uganda is allowed 14 kilograms of baggage, All Solidarity materials, especially the slippers, most of them are brand new. In this edition, companies such as Sprinter, New Balance, Asics and the College of Physical Therapists of Valencia and Andalusia collaborated, as well as Prim Fisio, Sanipure and Herycor. “We were hoping more people would be involved in this new phase of the project. We know the situation here and there hasn’t made things any easier, but we are very excited and those of us who travel do so with great enthusiasm. We don’t know what we will find. Everything is new for us, But in the surveys that have been taken and what we are talking about these months, it makes us optimistic that all the efforts of so many people will reach so many people there,” Jordi Rigg noted.