The Mosaic group in the Lake District

The Mosaic group in the Lake District

The work of ethnic minority community champions who encourage visits to our national parks will feature in a film to be shown next month.

Mosaic will air on the Community Channel and features two Preston residents as they encourage others in their neighbourhood to share their enthusiasm for the Lake District. The film was shot by Zeina Aboul-Hosn.

Britain’s national parks are visited by an estimated 100 million people each year, but only one per cent are from ethnic minorities. The Campaign for National Parks has set up the Mosaic project to encourage more people from Britain’s minority ethnic groups to enjoy the countryside of the parks.

The film, the third in the Untold Stories series of short films, follows brother and sister Khadija and Ahmed, originally from Gujarat, as they take their family to the Lake District.

A spokesperson for the film-makers said: “Having spent most of their lives caught up in the neighbouring sprawl of Preston, they have been coming to this beautiful national park for years. Now they want to make sure that others in their community also have a chance to visit our most spectacular landscapes.

“The film highlights the work of Mosaic, a partnership lead by the Campaign for National Parks, which trains ‘community champions’ like Khadija and Ahmed to encourage their local communities to enjoy the beauty of the open air. Khadija and Ahmed are leading the way.”

The film will be broadcast on Wednesday 3 March at 7.30am and 7.30pm. The channel can be viewed on Freeview, Virgin and Sky. It will then be available to view online on the Community Channel website.