Being a kid from a refugee background is hard when it comes to team sport, according to Abdul Samim Khan.
Money, language, cultural barriers, and emotional trauma are some of the barriers to participation that Mr Khan helps to overcome at the Logan Roos Football Club.
He founded the club back in 2016. It was a natural evolution that started during his tenure working at a local mosque.
Every week he saw kids with natural ability playing soccer in the carpark or courtyard.
“You see these kids kicking the ball around and I thought ‘wow’ these kids have ability, but the parents didn’t know where to go to take their children to play sports,” he said.
He also noticed how kids gravitated to sport and how it was an escape from the daily struggles that refugee and migrant families endured, particularly their parents who were still trying to adjust to life here.
“They [their parents] don’t always know how to drive, and sometimes the only places they know are the supermarket and home,” he said.
“Some kids have no mother or father, some kids have emotional issues, so we tried to make them more confident by creating this space.”
He then decided to start a weekly meetup for the kids, where they would have BBQs and play games.
“The idea was to create a place where we could meet, have BBQs, talk to the kids and mentor them,” he said.
At first, his group started with 10 youngsters, which quickly grew to 60.
Then, they started playing social sport.
“We started to make a team, but we didn’t have a ground, so we mostly played friendlies and away games,” Mr Khan said.
“We used to play weekly futsal, and then I spoke to one of the councillors, which led to us securing Oates Park in Woodridge.”
Securing Oates Park was important, not least because it gave them a permanent base, but because it was somewhere safe and dependable that Mr Khan could start building the trust of families.
“Around that time five years ago, there was a lot of Islamophobia around, so parents were really shy to go around and thought they weren’t welcome,” he said.
As the trust grew, the parents started coming on board and helped transform the Logan Roos into what they are today.
They are a vibrant club of 35 nationalities and consistently have more than 150 players each season across juniors and seniors.
“The club is multicultural, all inclusive,” Mr Khan said.
A few years ago, they managed to have 200 players with only the one field.
Mr Khan gets his passion and drive to help the community from the concerns he has about his own kids’ futures.
“Because I have three sons, and all this concern about what your child is going to do in the future,” he said.
“All along I’ve been thinking how we can create something that helps keep children on track and puts them on the right path.”
