“To Make Them Happy, All Our Future Generation”

This story is written by Azad Skene, a youth reporter and 7th grader at Beacon Hill Middle School. Sami Skene, a fifth grader at Fifth Avenue Elementary School, also contributed to this report. This story is part of a pilot project to incorporate youth voices in 285 South’s coverage.

On Sunday afternoon, members of the Rohingya community gathered at Milan Park in Clarkston for the “Georgia Rohingya Unity Cup Championship Celebration.” It was the first time the Burmese Rohingya Community of Georgia (BRCG) hosted the soccer tournament since 2018, with both adult and youth teams competing. 

“We tried to bring the community together,” Ayub Mohammed, President of the BRCG, told 285 South, explaining that they hadn’t had a tournament like this since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Rohingya are a group of people who are from the country Burma(also known as Myanmar). About 5,000 Rohingya live here in Georgia, according to BRCG; many migrated here because they are a persecuted minority in Burma, which forced them to flee to other countries. “We’re very excited to be here because so many families are coming,” said Ayub. He said that they organized the tournament “to make them happy, all our future generation.” 

As players wearing orange jerseys and white jerseys stretched before their game, kids kicked a ball around and played pass while the parents sat under the pavilion, enjoying the beautiful day. A few young girls sat at a table selling lollipops and Utz cheeseballs, and a man behind the pavilion hacked fresh coconuts. Little kids ran around drinking cans of Red Bulls and players drank Powerade.

“Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim,” said the sports announcer around 1:30pm, and the first game began. People stood along the sidelines, which were separated from the field by red strings. The orange team dominated the white, winning 2-0. 

11-year-old Mohammed and student at Indian Creek Elementary told 285 South he was very excited to play in the tournament and that he was confident his team would win. As he spoke, his friends on the opposing team made comments behind him saying that they would win. Another young player, 9-year-old Arman, said he played left wing and that he practiced “pretty much everyday in my backyard.” He said he likes soccer because it’s “entertading.” He said he likes to dribble because defenders can’t get him. He said he was better than some of the players on the other team.

After the first adult game, the kids had their own game, but not soccer (that would be later): it was called “biscuit game.” Two people grabbed the ends of a string with several biscuits hanging down on it. Each kid participating had their hands taped behind their back. Then, the kids had to catch the biscuit with their mouth and eat it, while two adults wiggled the string around on either end. The person who ate it first won $20, second won $10 and third won $5.

The excitement of this soccer tournament would travel all the way to Bangladesh, to one of the world’s largest refugee camps, called Cox’s Bazaar, home to around one million Rohingya people. Ayub said people back in Cox’s Bazaar, including all his siblings, will be watching through the BRCG’s Facebook live, which has about 17,000 followers. He says that they play soccer in Cox’s Bazaar too. He said “in our country Burma, our main sport is soccer.” At the end of the day, he said, “everybody gets a trophy no matter what place they get.”