New soccer pitches at Azraq refugee camp bring hope to refugee children

New soccer pitches at Azraq refugee camp bring hope to refugee children

FROM the air it appears nothing more than a tiny oasis of green in the lunar-like landscape of desert on the Syria-Jordan border.

But ​this week​ the patch ​has​ come alive to the screams of delight from hundreds of refugee children that World Vision Australia says will add some hope to their otherwise drab lives.

The patch of green are two soccer pitches, ​completed this week ​one each for boys and girls, to alleviate the boredom of life in a desert camp while residents wait for a new start in Europe or Australia.

The UNHCR’s Azraq camp has 25,700 mostly Syrian refugees, of which 56 per cent are children including 232 with no family, forced to flee their homes wracked by conflict.

It is from here and the larger Zaatari camp, with its 80,000 residents, from which Immigration Minister Peter Dutton who is visiting Jordan today on a two-day mission will select 12,000 people to resettle in Australia.

Australian Immigration Department officials are already advanced in the selection and co-ordination of movement to Australia as pledged by the Federal Government although the process is still expected to take months.

But aid workers say it’s the green fields that will give them hope.

World Vision Australia’s Jordan-based worker Suzy Sainovski, 42, said yesterday while fields seemed insignificant in the scheme of things, they would have an effect on the refugee children.

A football league is to be created for competition and three English Premier League football clubs, including Stoke City FC, were organising coaching clinics this month on the pitches.

We did the water and sanitation in Azraq refugee camp providing water and toilet facilities and we’ve just finished building two football (soccer) pitches,” Ms Sainovski said yesterday.

“It is green in the middle of the desert and it is so hot in summer and in winter freezing cold and these football pitches will do a lot. One of the many issues people face in these camps is boredom. Children do go to schools but to have this, well it will be really nice for them to play and have some structure.”