Stuff.co.nz
Ripu Bhatia
Saturday July 16, 2022
Maryan Egal watches as her three children chase after a football at McLeod’s Park in central Auckland.
Egal came to Aotearoa as a refugee from Somalia, and doesn't have the money to enrol her kids in mainstream sports clubs.
But the UMMA Trust’s holiday football programme is open to the children of refugees free of charge.
Running out of Waitemata Football Club, it gives them the chance to play and socialise, all while getting fit and learning new skills.“The benefit is the Somali community children getting to know each other, building up the relationships for the community,” Egal said.
”They often come from different schools, so they don't see each other often. At Waitematā soccer, they see, talk and play with each other very well."
A football programme for the children of refugees helps open up sport to vulnerable communities.
Egal said having opportunities like this have helped her family adjust to life in Aotearoa.
"We can't afford to put them at the club, so it's good, and the kids they like to come, because we don't take them to other clubs, so it's affordable for us as well,” she said.
"They enjoy it a lot, they like playing soccer.”
The club draws refugee families who have come from a range of countries including Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Ethiopia.
The programme runs out of Waitemata Football Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the school holidays.
Bashir Abdulahi, who is 17 years old, was at the club on Tuesday.
"It just means inclusion, getting more social, meeting people from different countries,” he said.
"We play soccer, we do drills first, we start with warm-ups, then we get into the games once we've warmed up."
UMMA Trust spokeswoman Anne Lee said refugee families often can’t afford recreational activities for their children.
“When refugees arrive the whole family has to do everything that if you lived in a country you’d be doing over 20 years,” she said.
Refugee families often don't have the money to enrol their children in sports clubs.
"They have to find somewhere to live straight away … the parents have got to learn English, the children have to study. Normally in the holidays the children don’t do anything, because they simply don’t have the money."
Lee said sports and holiday programmes were expensive and UMMA Trust wanted to subsidise a programme with a skill level associated with it.
She said the football sessions were “perfect for teenagers”.
The programme helps kids stay healthy, learn skills and socialise.
“It’s building sports skills which is a fabulous thing for refugee kids, who have been in refugee camps and haven’t had the chance to play sport or do anything, and haven’t been well nourished,” she said.
"You come to New Zealand, and suddenly you’ve got good food and, if you can, exercise at the same time. It’s something you’re passionate about because most refugees come from the northern hemisphere where football is everything."
The sessions run on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the school holidays.
Aotearoa has resettled more than 35,000 refugees since World War II. The annual refugee quota increased to 1500 in July 2020, but only 750 to 1000 will be settled in 2021 to 2022 due to the impacts of Covid-19.
UMMA Trust is a charity that provides services to support refugees financially and socially. Services range from budgeting and driving classes to recreational activities such as football.