Soccer helps refugees bridge gulf, forge bonds

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Adan Yusu of Rochester sends a soccer ball down field as the Somali team practices at Buckland Park in preparation for the International Soccer Tournament on Friday. / KRIS J. MURANTE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Growing up in Kenya, 18-year-old Mohamed Abdi never got the chance to play on a regulation soccer field, let alone inside a stadium.

There, a soccer ball could be anything from a ratty hand-me-down, to a bunch of bags tied together. But for Abdi, who arrived in Rochester in 2009, and many other immigrants, the sport has become a way to adjust to a new life.

On Friday, Abdi and players from Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Congo, Somalia and Sudan will play at Sahlen’s Stadium as part of Rochester’s first International Soccer Tournament.

“If you got a talent and you aren’t showing it off, you aren’t going anywhere,” said Abdi, the Somali team contact, explaining what the tournament meant to him. “(It’s for) everybody to see us, how we play, where we come from.”

The Somali Community Center of Western New York, a center founded and run by Somali immigrants, helped organize the event in conjunction with the Rochester Rhinos.

The center, at 71 Parkway near Lyell Avenue, helps people adjust to Rochester regardless of race or origin. It offers classes and counseling on everything from sewing and computers to using public transportation and paying bills.

Many of the players from Somalia spend time or volunteer at the center, creating a sense of community that helps as people adjust to a very different life.

Bill Wischmeyer, an advocate for recent immigrants who helped get the tournament off the ground, said that adjustment can put extra pressure on children and younger family members who are quicker to learn English.

“I think what happens is, (the children) have to make decisions for their parents. So they’re taking on a role that they shouldn’t have to take on,” Wischmeyer said.

“Soccer has been a medium for them all. Just playing together and being together helps them to settle in.”

For most tournament participants, the sport has been a part of their lives since childhood. In refugee camps across Africa and South Asia, children could escape hardships and atrocities for a little while through soccer.

“There’s different (refugee) camps, different sectors, and we just get together and go to the jungle. We played in the jungle, we don’t have this kind of field,” said Subash Bishwa, who came to Rochester from Bhutan in 2009. “In our community too, there are different kinds of people, (from) different castes. Different caste people speak different languages… (But) it doesn’t matter, everybody gets a chance to play, that’s what they call unity.”

Friendships through soccer have made life a little easier for Salum Hakizimana, a 26-year-old Burundi emigrant who came to Rochester in 2006. Hakizimana, who is pursuing a career as a firefighter, will play Friday for East Africa FC.

“I’m used to being in the heat so the first few months were a little crazy,” said Hakizimana, commenting on his first Rochester winter. “But the second year was good, I met some new friends. There was a Somali team which I’ll be playing in this tournament. My uncle used to play there so he took me there. Then I started playing, started making friends, and then I started to be more comfortable.”

Like their African counterparts, emigrants from Nepal and Bhutan have been organizing around soccer. On a ‘slow’ evening at Edgerton Park at Thomas Jefferson High School, about 40-50 teens and young men gather to pass the ball around and socialize.

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Adan Yusu of Rochester sends a soccer ball down field as the Somali team practices at Buckland Park in preparation for the International Soccer Tournament on Friday. / KRIS J. MURANTE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER