Dialect 2 News
The power football has in the social inlcusion of refugees in Hungary
Oltalom Sport Association uses the unique power football has in creating a receptive environment that foster social inlcusion of refugees and third country nationals residing in Hungary, with a special focus in girls who don’t have previous experience in playing sport with their male peers or playing sport at all in their country of origins.
Early Saturday morning in the City Park, one of the biggest public green areas of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Six girls are playing together with two adolescenst, they are having a game according tot eh Homeles World Cup rule system. The girls are preparing for their ever first HWC tournament in France, whereas the two male athlete are already ’senior’ HWC players, have been to several tournaments and now they are here to assist the girls’ process before their own training session starts. 
It is one of those hot summer days, when already at 8.30, everyone is sweating. However, that doesn’t keep Shira from wearing a headscarf known as a characteristic for women in Islamic cultures. The scene is the regular Saturday training of Oltalom Sport Association, delivered since 2005 at the same time (Saturday morning). Right now the girls are by themselves, having a bonding and learning experience disguised in a football training. However, soon they will join the rest of the team on the big pitch, and will play matches in mixed teams with the boys.
The organization is known to be a safe haven for marginalised groups, where children can experience a childhood without suffering from mental and physical atrocities. Therefore the trainings are quite diverse in terms of language, religion, cultural ot ethnical backgrund. If you listen carefully, you could hear at least three languages (Hungarian, English, Arabic). Athletes are training and playing together in mixed team, a fact that in many of their countries of origin would have been unimaginable. Here, the shared experience and passion will become an everyday reality, where they can still keep their traditions as they wish.
Doing sport for girls is not always common in the areas they come from. However, at Oltalom, trainings and activities are organized with social work informed care with special attention to he cultural traditions of the players. Oftentimes our female players are coming from communities, where girls and women are not valued in the same way as men are. They lack a healthy relationship model with the opposite gender, which often leads to their exploitation by their peers and also by their caretakers.
Oltalom works with the vision to prevent fall out from society and to enhance social inclusion of at-risk and marginalised groups by using the power of sport. Following that idea, together with trainings, we offer gender based social assistance based on our players’ actual needs and strive to engage them in various, individual or group social work activities.
Experiencing the sense of belonging is essential for one’s social integration, which is fostered by knowing the culture of the host society. Researches have been proved that in order to foster one’s inclusion into the new environment, the hosting milieu should be sensitized equally. Through the Fair Play Football Roadshow initiative invented by OSA in 2012, the Association offers a chance to both newcomers and longtime inhabitants to be able to adjust to the un- or less known on the football pitch. where with the use of football3, we aim to foster social inclusion and tolerance not only for our players but also for members of the host society. Our belief is that if the majority of the society sees and experiences representatives of minority groups in different roles than it is conveyed by mainstream media, it can foster a change in people’s mindset. Positive experiences can turn into changes in the attitudes which will find their ways into everyday life situations.
During the tournaments we aim to bring closer different social groups living next to each other, who, in their everyday life usually don’t, or rarely engage in conversation, and if they do so, most of the time these dialogues are full of tensions and in extreme cases, hatred. Encourage a dialogue between the two groups in a safe environment, with the emphasize on their shared passion, during a football3 game where they need to come to an agreement regarding their own game, with the presence of a football3 mediator might be a start for the groups to find a channel to each other, through which they are able to start, maintain, and with time improve a positive and progressive relationship which also serves their local community. Our aim is that they reach a level, where instead of only living next to each other, they rather live together.
Though addressing trauma and adversity migrant and refugee players went through is essential for physical and mental well-being, it is also crucial to focus on resilience factors for their successful social integration which fact is emphasized in every sport and social activity offered by Oltalom Sport Association for its players.
