Dreams Stadium: Football broadcasts life in Yemen’s camps

The tournament is organized by the International Organization for Migration, but it is more than just a sporting event – it is a lifeline. In Marib Governorate, where more than 2.3 million displaced people settled, families live in temporary shelters, often after they were forced to displace more than once.

Water is scarce, heat is harsh, and to obtain education and health care services very limited. Under these circumstances, the chances of living “natural” natural, not to mention the chances of playing and enjoying.

However, when the referee releases its yellow and the ball begins to roll, everything changes. On the field, children and youth are not identified through war stories, but rather they become colleagues, competitors, and bent athletes, whose attention is focused on the game only, only.

This year’s championship collected youth from more than twelve displaced sites, among them sites: Salwa, Al -Samsa, and As -Suwayda. In places that prevail in isolation and daily weight, the matches created a sense of interdependence and societal affiliation.

Hundreds of players scored and participated in the matches, despite the lack of equipment and resources. Among these players, Bashir, the 26 -year -old, who was displaced from his home and lives today at the heart of Salwa’s site of displacement. He stands next to his tent, which was burned by the sun and hit the wind, and says: “This is my home now, here, in the middle of Salwa camp. “

Like other young people in the sites of displacement in Marib, Bashir bears more than just his future responsibility. He is the sixth between seven brothers, and the only one who has a fixed income. It works daily on a small bus, which transports people back and forth across the city from the early morning to the afternoon. At best, he returns home for 20,000 Yemeni riyals, which is barely enough to secure food.

The entire family depends on it. His brothers without work. The older brother managed to reach Saudi Arabia and send money when he can, but irregularly. In most days, they feed on what Bashir can bring home.

His personal plans were postponed indefinitely. He has been engaged to marry three years ago, but he did not take any step towards marriage. He says, “I have no money.” Where everything he earns to his family.

However, it is not absent from the matches. For Bashir, football is not just a way to forget, but a haven. And a rare moment of focus and joy in a life overwhelmed by duty and struggle for survival.

Bashir says: “Football takes me to another world. When I play, I forget everything.”

This year’s championship ended with a final match between the two teams of Salwa camp and Al -Ramsa camp. Bashir team lost, but reaching the final was a victory for him.

He explains: “People may think that we felt frustrated, but we did not feel it, we did our best; many did not expect to get to this stage.”

What remains in his memory is much more than the results of the matches is the feeling of interconnection. The tournament created links between young people who lived next to each other for years, without really knowing each other. For a few weeks, they were not just neighbors in a crisis – but teammates, competitors, and friends.

Despite her popularity, this year’s championship faced a major challenge, which is a lack of funding. In previous years, the International Organization for Migration was able to completely equip the team. The players were getting shoes, socks, sportswear, and even suitable goals lists. As for this year, the camp management teams and the coordination of their activities in the organization were unable to provide only basic players.

Jamal Al -Shami, a field assistant in the organization and one of the championship organizers three years ago, says the team was previously providing hundreds of players with full teams. But this year, because of the lack of resources, he was afraid that this would affect the audience. It was worried that the players would lose their enthusiasm or feel frustrated. But the opposite happened completely.

More players joined compared to last year, “Jamal says. “Some of them came barefoot, and they played throughout the day under the hot sun. They were just happy for their presence there.”

Away from enthusiasm, the championship had a deeper impact. Through the discussion groups conducted by the organization’s teams in displacement sites, the same message from parents and youth was repeated: displacement negatively affects mental health. Life in camps is full of tension and isolation. But sport – and football in particular – gives young people a way to reconnect themselves and each other.

Jamal says: “When people are forced to displace, they leave everything behind, including the things they loved. For this reason, these activities are important. It helps people relax, restore the relationship with what they love.”

This joy has extended beyond the players. Where the fans gathered on the sides of the stadium, chanting with each goal. The commentator added enthusiasm to the matches with their strong comments. Even the camp managers stopped their work to follow the matches. For a few hours a day, the camps seemed to be a different place – the highest voice, lighter, and closer to life.

The success of this tournament is a reminder of the needs of displacement societies. It only needs food, water and shelter, but also to keep dignity, and something that people aim at and aspire to achieve. As the waves of displacement continue to Marib, the International Organization for Migration is working to promote mental health support and social support on the ground. This includes sports activities, youth clubs, and cultural events.

In this context, football is not just a game. It is a reminder of identity, a means of recovery, and a glimpse of normal life in a place that rarely gives people a feeling that they are natural.

For Bashir, it is personal. It is a silent joy that remains coherent in a state of uncertainty. Remember that happiness is still possible. And that the interconnection is still real. And that there are things that you deserve to stick to – even if it is necessary to play barefoot in the desert.

The Football Championship was held in Marib, with the support of the European Union for Humanitarian Aid and the US International Development Agency, as part of the activities of the International Immigration Organization in the field of camps management and coordination of its activities.

The article link on the website of the International Organization for Migration