GROUP PHOTO: Trainers Katy Nagy, second from left in the back, and Hel Say, front row left, with a girls’ football team in Oakland during a Soccer Without Borders training session. More than 200 children and teenagers regularly attend the charity’s Oakland football school.

By Barbara Munker

Wearing pink football boots and a yellow jersey, 16-year-old Maritza Bernal races across the worn-out football field at Oakland High School.
“Hey, over here,” the Mexican shouts in perfect English to her Salvadoran teammate, who has the ball.
When she arrived in the United States with her sister, aided by smugglers, two years ago, she couldn’t speak a word of English.
And she couldn’t play football either. “Now I’m pretty good at both,” she says proudly.
She trains twice a week with the organisation Soccer Without Borders, which aims to help refugees and asylum seekers. In Oakland alone, more than 200 children and teenagers take part in the football project every week.
Since it was founded in 2006, it has reached a total of more than 10,000 young people in three other US cities, as well as in Nicaragua and Uganda.
“It’s much more than just soccer,” says founder Ben Gucciardi, a 31-year-old football coach and teacher.
“This is a place where they feel safe and viable. So much in their life is changing, we want to give them a sense of consistency. Here they have something in common, no matter where they’re from.”
They come from countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea, Guatemala, Honduras and Syria. At the beginning they don’t speak English. Many are traumatised and feel isolated.
“Mister Ben” is more than just a football coach. Alireza Mahdavi, 17, who has no father and left Afghanistan for California two years ago with his mother and two sisters gives him a big hug in greeting.
Rafael Barrios from El Salvador also tells him his school problems.
“Here you make friends easily, even if they don’t speak your language,” the 16-year-old says. “When you feel comfortable, you try your best, you learn much faster, I think.”
In just a few years, Soccer Without Borders has grown to have around 80 employees and hundreds of volunteers.
The non-profit organisation has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and is financed through government grants, donations from sponsors and crowd-funding.
Sports and social clubs are also partners, with football clubs donating training equipment, balls and jerseys.
Gucciardi says the success of the project is based on being a “consistent presence” in the young refugees lives. Integration is encouraged in the sport through team work, cultural programmes and close contact with teachers and parents.
Around a third of those playing football in Oakland are girls. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve played a team sport and they often have to convince sceptical parents to let them take part.
“I visit parents from Afghanistan, Eritrea or Syria and explain to them that this is really good for their daughter, she’ll make friends on the team. It will be healthy for her and also make things easier at school,” says Katy Nagy.
The 25-year-old spent some time coaching in Uganda before coming to Oakland to train the girls team.
She has to make sure she takes into consideration her charges’ needs.
“Some of them have to be home before dark, or they have to wear their headscarf during soccer training. We try to accommodate these needs.”
She’s helped by Hel Say, who came to California from Burma as a 15-year-old.
Now 21, she remembers how hard it was to be in a foreign country at the beginning and how it was only when playing football that she managed to conquer her shyness.
She now plays for her college team, but helps out at Soccer Without Borders twice a week.
“These girls need a place where they feel welcome. The programme worked for me, now I want to help them,” she says now - in perfect English. —DPA