Coach Luma Mufleh, Founder of the FUGEES family, shares her Story
Luma Mufleh speaks at public event.
This year's CEHD Reads common book events culminated with a visit from Luma Mufleh, coach of the Fugees Soccer Team featured in Warren St. John's narrative Outcasts United: An American Town, A Refugee Team and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference. Coach Mufleh's quest to make a difference began with an informal pick-up soccer game in a parking lot in Clarkston, Georgia with a group of refugee boys who were reluctant to let a "girl" play. Her involvement with refugee youth and their families who are being resettled in the Atlanta area has grown into the Fugees Family – a foundation that includes several soccer teams for refugees (now both boys and girls), an after school tutoring program, and the first private school in the nation for refugee youth.
Mufleh's public talk began with the story of her youth in Jordan and her path to the United States, from Smith College to Clarkston. Hearing the story of the Fugees told in her own voice (both honest and humorous) from her point of view was engaging and enlightening for the audience. Though Mufleh's background is from a privileged family and her immigration to the U.S. was voluntary, she says that her identification with being an outsider and her sense of home being a place where international diversity is the norm, brings a sense of natural connection and affinity between her and the refugee community. That, and a passion for soccer!
Coach Luma with students.
As Coach Luma says, things come mostly in shades of gray – and she cautioned against the impulse to paint people in black and white. She admitted that she had "hit rock bottom" a couple of times in her life and making it through those experiences have helped strengthen her resilience and her ability to keep things in perspective, and at the same time have encouraged her to take more risks. This is the message she communicated on behalf of the refugee youth she works with, too: despite harsh circumstances that have shaped their lives -- war and violence in their home countries, and often misunderstanding and poverty in their newly resettled lives, they do not want pity. They are persistent, resilient young people who love life. Mufleh is determined to help give these youth the chance to succeed by providing them with a sense of community and belonging and the support to advance academically.
Students joined Coach Luma on and off the stage to pose questions. Mufleh's answers illuminated her "tough love" coaching philosophy, but also her undying focus on and dedication to helping her kids and their families. Soccer may be the "carrot," but what she hopes to support in the youth who participate in her program is much more than athletic skill. When the number of Fugee college graduates exceeds the number of Fugees she visits or bails out of jail, she says, she will have succeeded. It is her hope that former Fugees will be the future of the program, spreading the model throughout the country to reach refugee youth in communities across the nation.
