Refugees to play their own soccer cup in São Paulo

Players from 16 countries will play soccer in a match designed as a multicultural experience to give some visibility to refugees in Brazil. The Refugees' Soccer Cup (“Copa da Paz”) will take place on August 2 and 3, featuring seven-player teams from Pakistan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Mali, Congo, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Angola, Guinea-Conakry, Cuba, Cameroon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

The setting for the matches is the Glicério neighborhood in São Paulo, an area well-known as the home of a Catholic initiative called Peace Mission (“Missão Paz”), which provides shelter to immigrants. Each match will last 30 minutes, with the grand finale to take place on Sunday. Cameroon and Iraq will be the first competitors to face off. The Refugees' Soccer Cup relies on the support of the Catholic Caritas Brazil organization in a partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Football and humanitarian aid

Syrian Abdul Ibrahim, 40, is not really familiar with soccer balls, but he'll rise to the challenge of playing the games. He left Syria 18 months ago and took refuge in Brazil, where he works as an English teacher. “I'm playing for my home Syria where I used to live with my former wife and my children. It was a very troubled region with bombs going off all the time, that's why I decided to leave,” he said.

Uchen Henry, 21, is a young musician from Nigeria. He is in charge of arranging the games. “First of all, we want to bring the refugees closer together and make friends. But we also want to show Brazilians that we're here, that we had to run away from our home countries to survive.” He has been in Brazil for eight months after a 14-day journey hiding in a cargo ship.

Larissa Leite, Foreign Coordinator for Caritas, said the team lineups might need a few adjustments, since some of them are representing cultures which are not very familiar with soccer. “In Afghanistan, for example, cricket is much more popular, so some teams may need reinforcements,” she said.

She pointed out that the games will provide an opportunity to discuss policies that could help give these populations the assistance they need. “Brazil has helped provide some humanitarian aid to other countries, but more and more refugees are coming and this is not coupled with more resources to see them through”, she said. Some key services needed include job placement and Portuguese language learning. Moreover, new challenges come up as unaccompanied teenagers are frequently coming into the country. “They are even more vulnerable and need special care,” she said.

Translated by Mayra Borges