Mufleh, Luma

Luma Mufleh was coaching an undefeated soccer team for young girls at the YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia when she got an irresistible idea: in nearby Clarkston, refugee kids from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa were dealing with a new country, new schools, a new language. Mufleh, born and raised in Amman, Jordan herself, knew a lot about what it’s like to be a stranger in a new country. But she also knew that kids from every one of the refugees’ countries shared one thing—soccer. What if she helped organize the refugee kids into teams and did some coaching?

The irresistible idea proved much more complex than she had imagined, so complex that “the Fugees,” the refugee kids’ teams, became the all-consuming center of Mufleh’s life, growing into a multi-faceted system she calls the Fugee Family. For the hundreds of refugee kids and parents in the Fugee Family, Mufleh has become their fulltime advisor, tutor, champion, advocate—and, of course, soccer coach.

She started by handing out flyers in four languages in the apartment buildings where refugees lived. The refugee families were suspicious. Was she a missionary, hoping to convert the children? How were they supposed to get their kids to soccer practice when they were all working a maximum number of minimum-wage hours? Was this going to cost money? And what was a “girl” doing coaching a man’s sport?

The families were already experiencing the difficulties of being “non-white foreigners” in a small southern town. Many white families had moved out as the population of immigrants increased; many who stayed were angry about the change in the town. As “Coach Luma” built her teams, she dealt with all of it. It’s been hard to get decent fields for the kids to play on. She’s coached her players in not responding to racial insults they hear when they play.

Mufleh insists that the kids make good grades; that led to finding tutors and tutoring a lot of hours herself. Players’ parents have been so strapped for money that the kids were often hungry, making it hard for them to study or to be at their best as soccer players. Mufleh started a cleaning company appropriately called Fresh Start. All the employees are refugee women; the pay is double what they had been earning on their own.

When families are stumped by complicated paperwork, Mufleh translates. When teachers can’t make contact with players’ parents, they call Mufleh.

Bit by bit, it all began to work. The town’s mayor let the Fugees use a city-owned grassy playing field instead of a dirt lot. The first soccer team grew to three. Service clubs and opposing-team parents were so impressed by the Fugees that they bought them cleats, balls and jerseys. The main Fugee team was undefeated in its third year. Following Coach Luma’s rule that they were never to ask their parents to pay any costs for soccer, the players earned every penny they needed to get to the state tournament, where they made the finals.

Coach Luma Mufleh says that the years she’s spent with the Fugees have been a ”wonderful yet terrifying journey led by the children I coach.” The kids and parents in the Fugee Family may have a different view of who’s leading this amazing operation.