A Refugee child dreams of playing for Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League

By Mukitale Moses

Time Check 8am.  13-year-old John Mabior is already up and clad in his ragged Chelsea Jersey and blue scruffy shorts.The two outfits have been his only wear since he arrived at the South Sudan refugee camp in Uganda.

 Due to the heat in the camp, coupled with the thorns and thickets surrounding the homesteads, most children of his age put on rubber sandals made from car tyres. This is because they are full-bodied for severe activities including John’s favourite- playing football.

Prior to the unrest back home, Mabior, a talented young football player with a dream of one day featuring in the highly coveted Barclays Premier league was set to complete his junior studies.

‘’I was left with only one year to complete my Junior studies but then my family had to move here for safety.  All my friends I was studying with also fled, some to Kenya and other to Ethiopia. It’s the most painful thing that has ever happened to me,‘’ Mabior says in his mother tongue.

‘’And of course we have different curriculums of study. So when I got here, the equivalent of my studies was primary five and yet the only community school near the camp is too congested that some classes are held under trees,’’ he says.

‘’I went there for one week but even the teachers where not coming. The other thing I did not like was the ridicule we refugee children receive in the community schools. No one wants to associate with us and yet we don’t even understand their language. When anything goes wrong, we are the easy targets,’’ Mobior says.

It was because of this reason that John’s parents chose to pull him out of the local community school, placing him at a makeshift Refugee community school inside the camp, stationed under a tree shade.

 The school operates from 8am-11am but some times classes last for only an hour or two depending on the weather. The only well sheltered classes for refugee children are at the World Vision Child friendly spaces, which however conduct only early child hood development lessons for mostly 8 years and below.

‘’’Here under the trees we are okay. We all speak Arabic but some times we learn in English. We have our own teachers plus some few Ugandan teachers who come in to teach us English. So after Classes I together with my 10 other friends go to play football till 6pm,’’ Mobior says.

Mobior and his friends always gather at any of the four World Vision’s Child friendly spaces where they find balls and a make shift play ground to play many sporting activities.  Girls take to netball, running or skipping ropes while boys majorly take to football.

And because some of these youth have one meal a day, which is usually at night they find no pertinent reasons for going back home till then.

‘’While still in Sudan, I was playing in the local junior tournaments and we won some trophies. Our team was strong but we all separated now. My dream is to play for Chelsea football club in the Barclays Premier League.  I love it when the fans sing your name’’

Mobior is not the only one dreaming that big. I later realise that all his teammates idolise several acclaimed stars in the Premier League, some of whom they imitate while celebrating.

According to the refugee welfare committee chairperson of Iyilo A in Adjumani William Deng, the World Vision Child friendly spaces have done a lot in revitalising hope among young stars.

‘’Most of these boys had lost hope in life when they came to Uganda. Some of them it was their first time to leave Sudan and to others it was their first time to go through the trauma they witnessed,” Mr Deng says.

“They witnessed their parents being killed while others had to run on foot all the way to the boarder. But through the counselling sessions held at the spaces, coupled with the games and activities they partake in, these children can now sing and dance again. Its like everything has been erased from their memories,’’ he adds.

World Vision currently has in total four child friendly spaces in Adjumani, two at Iyilo and two in Nyumanzi. Iyilo and Nyumanzi are the two prime South Sudan refugee settlements areas. In Nyumanzi alone the Child friendly spaces have reached out to 2133 children while in Iyilo they have reached out to 2891 children.

So in total World Vision has so far reached out to 5024 children at the spaces alone, in addition to the over 7350 others it provides with blankets, warm clothings, soap and medical supplies as gifts in kind.