Award-winning blogger Mike Hitchen reports on a Baltimore-based soccer tournament, sponsored by the International Rescue Committee, that is allowing kids who have escaped conflict-ravaged countries to play soccer free from danger. Hitchen reports that plans are underway to create a permanent refugee soccer league -- a Peace League -- in Baltimore.
An excerpt from the blog post reads:
A soccer tournament is underway on a field next to a busy street in Baltimore, an hour or so outside of Washington, DC. Four teams of teenage boys are competing for ribbons and a gold cup. They could be from anywhere, but these teens are all refugees from conflict zones - Iraqis, Burmese, Bhutanese, and Meskhetian Turks.
Marwan Saleh plays defense for the Iraqi team, the "Tigers." The 17-year-old left his homeland nine months ago. "There, there's war. We don't have a chance to play soccer," he explains. "It's my chance to play soccer. We cannot live there. We don't have jobs. We cannot study; we cannot do anything. There's war, there's shooting, there are guns, gangs, the army, fighting between people. Here's better for us - safe. We can study. We can do anything here. Here is the future."
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