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Team Spirit Dissolves Divides

  • January 31, 2014
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Allesandro Lallai used to play professional football, and when he came to Gaza, kids would run up to him yelling the names of famous Italian players. So he decided to start a team: at five every evening he coached kids in a sandy field next to a bombed-out building. He lived on the 11th floor of our building, and since there’s rarely electricity, every day before practice the kids would run up eleven flights to bang on his door and yell, ‘Allesandro, let’s go!’

After a month, as a treat, we bought them uniforms and shoes and convinced a sports center to let us use their space one Friday. The kids loved playing in a proper facility; afterward, when they went back to playing in sand, many refused to wear their new shoes because they wanted to save them for special occasions.

The day before Allesandro left, one boy’s father came and told him, “I think you should know, your team has kids from all the different parties here. Normally if I saw my kids talking to a child whose family supported a different party, I’d tell them to stop. But since they were playing football, I couldn’t object. Now I’m starting to speak to their parents because I know our children are friendly. To you it might seem like just a game, but you’re making an enormous difference here, and I hope you continue.”

Allesandro’s dream now is to find a way to return and open a sports center for kids. The only rule will be no talking politics: we have to focus on the things that bring us together, not those that divide us.

Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
Italian football school in Gaza
Photo Credit: Sami Haven
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Sami Haven

Sami Haven was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1987. His mother is originally from Yabroud, Syria, and his father is English born in the Caribbean. He grew up in his grandmother's house in Jabal al-wehbdeh, in the heart of Amman. In 2003 Sami moved to Al-Saru, on the outskirts of Amman, where he studied graphic design at Al Ahliyya University, graduating with the highest grades of his class. In 2005 he moved to Rome, Italy, where he did his masters in Photography. Sami worked with the world's most famous photographers like Steven Klein and Oliviero Toscani, along with many others. His works have been included in the Biennale of Venice directed by Kazuyo Sejima, Paris-Photo, and also in Tokio. After working in various editions of X-FACTOR Italia - making video clips for the contestants - in theatre with Fendi, and in the high fashion industry, Sami felt there was something missing, and so he decided to go to Gaza, Palestine, because it is an example of resistance and humanity, and to try and contrast the image constructed by the Western media that serves only the powerful. Today Sami is co-funder and part of an on growing conceptual group called Jasmine. A group united through passion against fear, a smell that's to spread out from the Mediterranean like a virus, to contaminate the world with Love, and heal from indifference. All can be part, and all shall be armed: Culture, Art, Music and Sport shall be our weapons of mass construction.

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1 comment
  1. ABDALLAH AKROUK, PhD says:
    January 31, 2014 at 5:46 pm

    YOU GREAT PEOPLE ARE DOING THE JOB, THAT MY GENERATION FAILED TO DO. YOU ARE THE SEEDS OF PEACE AND THE HOPE OF THE DEPRIVED. I AM THREE QUARTER OF A CENTURY +3 YEARS OLD . I ENVY YOU FOR THE HONERY JOB YOU ARE PERFORMING. MAY ALL BLESS YOU ALL.

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