My name is Kiseri Rufael. I am 17 yrs old and originally from Eritrea. I came to Australia after having spent 4 years living in Sudan. The reason why I was in Sudan was because my country Eritrea was unsafe for my family to live. Even in Sudan, life is not comfortable. If I want to share my experience as a refugee in Sudan, I just want to thank God.
The reason is back in Sudan life was hard to live as a refugee. I am lucky there wasn’t anything happened to me but there were bad things happening for other people who from from my country as a refugee. Luckily, I have an uncle in Australia who helped my family come to Australia. Australia is one of the peaceful countries in the world because there is freedom of speech and human rights, unlike my country, Eritrea. There is equality and all people are the same no matter what their skin is.
Now I have been living here for 1 year. My favourite sport is soccer and back in Eritrea I used to play soccer everyday with my friends. When I came to Australia, I wanted to continue to play soccer for clubs but it was very hard to me to pay for the season. I made a friend that was playing soccer through Pushing Barriers, and this is how I was connected.
I am so lucky to find a team like Centenary Stormers. I play for under 18 division 2, I have a lovely team who always trust each other and share their ideas. I’m so grateful for being in that team.
Pushing Barriers is helping many refugee people to play soccer through paying for all the costs. I promised to myself I will never forget what Pushing Barriers has done for me and I will always support them.
Pushing barriers is the best and they help me pay for the fees. Also, they organise driving me to and from training and games.
I thank Pushing Barriers for this opportunity. I hope they can continue doing this work.
Words from Kiseri Rufael.
