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Refugee soccer team from Darfur hopes to compete in Sweden

Darfuri footballers come from 9 of the 13 major camps. They've had tryouts and training but are still short on scratch. 

  • By Meghan Higginbotham Guest blogger

A version of this post appeared on The Enough Project site. The views expressed are the author's own. 

Enough Project partner organization i-ACT is currently in eastern Chad putting together a team of Darfuri refugee soccer players who will travel to Sweden at the end of May to compete in the ConIFA World Football Cup.

Some 60 players representing 9 of the 13 Darfuri refugee camps participated in an intense three-day tryout period last week. Twenty-one of them qualified to be a part of a two-week training camp where they’ll be running, doing drills, and scrimmaging to earn one of the 15 spots on the 2014 Darfur United team.

Darfur United is a positive story that helps bring attention, hope, and dignity to a mostly forgotten Darfuri people.

Over the last year, this region has been experiencing alarming turmoil and violence. The camps from which the players come from have gone through drastic food cuts because of lack of resources by the humanitarian community.

The young men who make up the Darfur United squad are leaders in their camps and will be the future peacemakers for their people.

As of today, they are just $12,250 from raising the amount needed to transport the players from N’Djamena, Chad to Ostersund, Sweden.

If you can support their efforts, please make a donation today. Funds to support flight costs to Sweden are needed by Monday May 19th.

Make a donation and follow the journey.

Wikipedia on ConIFA:

The ConIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by ConIFA, an umbrella association for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA, planned to be held every two years.

In May 2013 ConIFA announced that Sápmi had been chosen to host the inaugural ConIFA World Football Cup in Östersund, Sweden.

It will be an invitational tournament, played between the 1st June and 8th June 2014 with all matches being held in the 5092-capacity Jämtkraft Arena.

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