Soccer a Gateway to Education for Refugee Kids
GUPTA: This next story is going to take you to a special place -- a place where when you are here, you are family. A Georgia woman is getting some pretty high marks for combining soccer and education, to give refugee kids from war-torn countries a new lease on life. She's a matriarch of the Fugees Family and it's this week's "Human Factor."</s>GUPTA (voice-over): At first glance, they just look like a bunch of kids playing soccer. But, take another look, a closer one. This is the Fugees Family. (on camera): Anybody who wants to be a part of this family can be?</s>LUMA MUFLEH, FOUNDER, FUGEES FAMILY: Any refugee that wants to be a part of this family can be.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): And that is what binds them together. They are all refugees, 86 children and teens from more than 28 countries.</s>MUFLEH: Any country that's had a war in the past 20, 30 years, we have kids from those countries.</s>GUPTA: What started as a casual soccer team six years ago is now a school full of students, most of whom have never been in a classroom before.</s>GUPTA: Robin Dikori sharply dressed in the school's uniform, blue sweater and tie is an 8th grader at the Fugees Academy -- something that would have been almost impossible in his native Sudan. (on camera): Right, after you moved to the United States and someone said, Robin, what are you going to do with your life, what would you have said?</s>ROBIN DIKORI, FUGEES FAMILY: I don't know what to say during that time. And now, I look at myself, I want to be someone very good and make my people proud.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): Life in America has not always been good to Robin. (on camera): When you are an outsider from Sudan living in the United States, what is that like? What happens to you?</s>DIKORI: It's very hard, like everyone is picking on you, like they're treating you really differently, you don't belong here.</s>GUPTA: What did you do?</s>DIKORI: I used to fight a lot. But nowadays, I don't really get into fights. I try to resolve them and not make people fight.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): And while there are refugees living all around the United States, the Fugees Family is the only group combining soccer with the hope for a better future. (on camera): Are there other organization that is you know of like this around the country? So, this is it?</s>MUFLEH: No. This is it. And we get e-mails every week from people around the country and around the world, when will you bring the Fugees to us?</s>GUPTA: How many more years before you finish?</s>DIKORI: I have four more years because I'm in eighth grade now.</s>GUPTA: Four more years and then?</s>DIKORI: Another four years.</s>GUPTA: Of?</s>DIKORI: College.</s>GUPTA: Right now, the Fugees Academy only teaches kids through the eighth grade. But there are some potentially some good news. They are about to begin construction on the Fugees Family high school. So, we'll see how that goes. Good luck to y'all. Next, my day with Dr. Q, the fellow neurosurgeon whose past to medicine is different than from just about anyone else you've ever met. We'll have that for you. Stay with us.