Middlesbrough give refugees football kit and feeling of belonging
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian
Mutwakil Muhammad Ali beams, resplendent in Middlesbrough’s bright-red home kit. “They are giving me everything – shoes, clothes, support. I don’t know how to thank them for what they have done for me.”
A refugee who fled Sudan’s civil war in search of a better life, Mutwakil has been attending the weekly Club Together sessions at the Herlingshaw Centre in Middlesbrough’s South Bank since it began last year. Established by the Championship club’s MFC Foundation in conjunction with local charity the Methodist Asylum Project, the project brings together more than 30 refugees and asylum seekers to socialise, learn English and, more importantly, indulge in their true passion: football.
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