US Edition I first met Christopher Shale in Rwanda in 2009. In Kigali, he explained in exciting, inspirational terms how a diverse group of us was going to work for two weeks with charities devoted to improving the lives of survivors of the country’s devastating 1994 genocide. It was a privilege to count him as a friend.
Both Christopher and I were part of a Conservative Party trip called “Project Umubano” — umubano means friendship in the Rwandan language and the project involves a group of Party members and activists travelling halfway round the world to volunteer their services.
Teachers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen such as Christopher and many others donate their valuable time for nothing more than the pleasure of helping others. Over five years, he was deputy there in all but name to Andrew Mitchell, first shadow and now Secretary of State for International Development.
Christopher was a successful man who believed his success brought with it an obligation to try to help others; he was as keen to do that locally in Oxfordshire as he was in Rwanda. And he was proud of a project that, run by the Conservatives, had grown in numbers every year and attracted an ever-increasing range of ages. It was, he told me, the thing that brought him more pleasure than any business endeavour because it made a real difference to the lives of people far less fortunate than he was. Christopher knew that the “big society” extends well beyond our own borders.
Throughout the project, he showed a rare ability to make serious and difficult tasks a pleasure to accomplish. His role on Umubano last year was to hold together the “community” project and it meant turning a diverse group of volunteers from PR, banking, charities and other industries into a team that could offer Rwandan charities valuable, tangible assistance when it came to accessing grants. Revelling in good company, he could lead, listen and inspire.
He was a music enthusiast, enjoying Glastonbury and already working out his plans for this summer’s Project Umubano, helping young people find work and developing their CVs. It’s a fitting tribute that those plans will continue. He would have wanted nothing less, and he would have loved being a part of it.
You can help survivors of Rwanda’s genocide via survivors-fund.org.uk