I had been warned in advance. It will be the most humbling experience of your career, said a colleague. It will move you to tears and put football into stark perspective.
It was all those things – and more.
In a week when most of the footballing banter was about the 2016 European qualifying draw or who would progress from the cash-rich Champions League, far removed from the Real Madrids and Chelseas of this world, football was playing a very different role, enriching the lives of scores of innocent, often traumatised children displaced from their homes – possibly never to return.
The venue was the Za’atari refugee camp at Mafraq just over an hour’s drive from the Jordanian capital of Amman where hundreds of thousands of refugees have poured over the border from Syria 12 kilometres away to take refuge from the escalating conflict that has ravaged their homeland.
More than 100,000 people live at Za’atari in tents and steel caravans, more than half of whom are children. Comprising around 30% of the overall Syrian refugee population of Jordan it is the third biggest settlement of its type on the planet and is, in one way, a place of despair. Almost everyone has lost a relative or friend.
But it is also, strangely, a place of hope. Thanks to a huge co-ordination effort by aid agencies and, in some measure, to football under a programme co-ordinated by the non-profit-making Asian Football Development Project (AFDP).
When I visited Za’atari a few days ago, the monthly under-13 girls grassroots football festival was in full swing. On a gravel makeshift pitch no bigger than a school playground, over 70 young girls – many of them either barefoot or wearing socks, none of them wearing proper football gear – were being put through their paces by qualified coaches teaching them to pass, dribble and shoot. Such was the huge demand to take part from girls as young at eight that when not involved, they sat dutifully at the side of the pitch in the warm afternoon sun, waiting patiently for their turn, not making a fuss. Some were quick to lean forward and smilingly take my hand; others shyly cowered away, covering their faces as if still psychologically damaged by recent events.
When not playing football, most of the Za’atari children, the vast majority having fled from the area around the Syrian town of Daraa, have precious few activities to stimulate them. Daily education has been introduced throughout the camp and there is running water and electricity, but leisure time invariably means sitting around doing next to nothing in the dusty, stony bushland around their unfamiliar so-called homes.
For Jordanian FA president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, the FIFA vice-president who set up and heads the AFDP, the introduction of football in the camp is one of his proudest achievements throughout the Continent in terms of making a difference. The phrase “corporate social responsibility” is one of football’s trendiest and more generally used in a different context, but Za’atari’s regular football tournaments are living proof that it works.
“You have all these kids, boys and girls. Yes they are being supplied with basic needs but at the end of the day they have nothing to do in their own time,” Prince Ali told Insideworldfootball. “Through football, this is one way to keep them busy, give them teamwork, give them health. And of course, take their minds off some of the things they’ve been through. It’s the human dimension of football which some people overlook.”
Some of the aid workers in and around the camp were sceptical at first about the necessity of the need for football. Not any more. Agreements have been struck by the AFDP with a raft of charitable organisations, sponsors and governments who are now bending over backwards to help as are FIFA and UEFA. AFDP projects are supported by its official partner Pepsi while officials work particularly closely with UNHCR and the Norwegian football authorities who have donated considerable funds for constructing the makeshift pitches.
“Initially when the refugees arrived at the camp, some had rocks thrown at them,” explained Prince Ali. “Football keeps them away from bad issues like drugs and gangs. Football is not only about competition.”
Remarkably, Za’atari has a distinct “can do” feel about it. Its main market-trading street is jokingly referred to as the Champs Elysees and is positively bristling with hundreds of private businesses and over 1,200 stalls selling everything from food and clothes to mobile phones and wedding dresses.
It is, to all intents and purposes, a self-made mini-city but it’s clear that this is not where the people would ideally prefer to be. Everyone knows someone who has been left behind. “Many have seen villages that have been destroyed, they’ve seen bodies and wounded people,” said one AFDP administrator. “For the children in particular, these are things they should not be seeing. You can see the sense of despair in their eyes. But you see a totally different energy when they are playing football.”
She wasn’t wrong. Rarely have I witnessed such enthusiasm for sport from ones so young. Football may be male-dominated in many parts of the world but the girls’ festival I attended was heavily over-subscribed with the refugees begging to play. “The rest of the time they have hardly any leisure activities,” explained Carine N’Koue, one of the UEFA-appointed instructors at Za’atari. “As soon as football finishes, both the boys and the girls are already asking about the next tournament or festival.”
Perhaps the last word should go to Kilian Kleinschmidt, the UNHCR manager who runs the giant site and puts together all the moving parts so it can function properly district by district. “Look into the eyes of many of these kids and you see adults,” he said. “Many of them have lost their bearings. Children relate to football and putting in something that gives them back their childhood cannot be under-estimated.”
Andrew Warshaw is the chief correspondent of Insideworldfootball and last week visited the Za’atari refugee camp at Mafraq, near the Jordanian-Syrian border. Contact Andrew at moc.l1713609645labto1713609645ofdlr1713609645owedi1713609645sni@w1713609645ahsra1713609645w.wer1713609645dna1713609645