UNHCR Teams up with Goal Click On Digital Storytelling Series
June 12, 2020
Ahead of Refugee Week in the UK (June 15-21) and World Refugee Day (June 20), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is putting an emphasis on children and youth and the role of sport during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Along with holding an online discussion this past week regarding the importance of helping young refugees and asylum seekers, the agency has joined forces with Goal Click, a football storytelling and photography project. Together, the two are launching a photographic and text series called “Goal Click Refugees” to help restore the voices of poverty and trauma-stricken communities through the common language of football.
With children and youth amongst the hardest hit by, as in most emergency situations, UNHCR held an NGO Consultation on 10 June. During the session, participants addressed how sports and humanitarian organizations delivering sport and recreation activities are innovating, adapting and managing to stay and deliver for the young people UNHCR and Partners work with and for.
“UNHCR has been promoting sport as a positive catalyst for empowering refugees, helping to strengthen social cohesion and forge closer ties with host communities,” said Dominique Hyde, Global Head of External Relations at UNHCR. “For young men and women uprooted by war or persecution, sport is much more than a leisure activity. It’s an opportunity to be included and protected – a chance to heal, develop and grow.”
Goal Click, a global project that tells the story of football around the world using photography, began this new series by giving out disposable analogue cameras to each participant. From there each camera was taken to a different country for the participant to capture images that depict their football lives and communities.
Founder of Goal Click Matthew Barrett said: “We could not be more proud to launch Goal Click Refugees with UNHCR. Whilst many stories appear in the media about refugees, it is rare to actually hear their voices or see their perspective. This series aims to challenge existing stereotypes and give an intimate look into refugees’ football lives, in a way that no one from outside these communities could do. Now, more than ever, the voices of the marginalized need to be heard.”
Photos from camps in Jordan, Kenya and South Sudan all the way to the fields of London and Sydney display raw, unfiltered reality through the eyes of the 25 male and female refugee participants across five continents.
The Goal Click Refugee series will continue for an entire year leading up to a physical exhibit presented at the European Football Championship in 2021. By that time more than 60 refugee stories from over 20 countries will be published form both before and after the effects from Covid-19.
“Some people in the camp believe that football is only for boys, and girls shouldn’t do it. But when I play football it raises my spirits and it reinforces my self-confidence,” said Maram, 14, a girl from Zaatari camp in Jordan. “I can be the person that changes how the community perceives girls’ football and breaks the wall of shame. My wish is to strengthen my skills in football, so I can achieve my dream and become a famous footballer, and to travel.”
Current photos can be found at unhcr.org/goalclick and goal-click.com. The Goal Click Refugees series is also promoting donations to both the UNHCR’s global work as well as the Covid-19 Response Fund of Common Goal, a collective fund that supports football charities around the world.