Squash’s ‘small-circuit’ offers success chance for refugee girls

AMMAN — Two years ago, young Syrian refugees Iman, Raghda, Sabah and Rawan had never picked up a squash racquet, let alone knew what the elite racquet sport was. Now, they train nearly every day at Jordan Squash Federation’s courts at Sports City and are on their way to becoming internationally competitive players.

These girls were “the original four” who were recruited into the non-profit organisation Squash Dreamers founded in 2016 by an American squash player.

Squash Dreamers aims to train Syrian refugee girls in squash to empower them to pursue promising athletic and academic careers, according to its mission statement.

Because the professional squash circuit is small, squash players who start at a young age have a higher chance of achieving success than if they trained in popular sports like football or basketball, founder of Squash Dreamers Clayton Keir said. 

Prestigious schools in Jordan such as King’s Academy and Amman Baccalaureate School have expressed interest in enrolling these girls as they reach high school age so they may develop squash programmes there, according to Becca Cooper, Squash Dreamers' country director. 

Academically-renowned universities in the United States also recruit squash players from all around the world, providing them scholarships and visas to the country, she added. 

By training Syrian girls in the niche sport, Squash Dreamers is capitalising on the many opportunities that the squash world extends.

The directors of the programme have partnered with Reclaim Childhood, another non-profit which trains Syrian girls in sports through after-school programmes and camps, to find girls who demonstrate potential and interest in squash. 

Thanks to the support of the Jordan Squash Federation, 14 girls currently receive two to three hours of training a day three to four times a week from member of Jordan’s national squash team Hamza Al Zubaidy.

“They have improved so much,” Zubaidy said, stressing that “for their age group, they are really good”.

The girls have progressed so much that the programme started registering them for international tournaments. In late July, the “original four” plan to travel to China to participate in the Hong Kong Junior Open 2018. 

Cooper says that they are also trying to send the girls to Egypt, where squash is more popular, for additional training and camps.

Squash Dreamers not only offers squash lessons to the girls, but also provides one to two hours of English language instruction after practice. The organisation is working on developing a robust language programme to supplement the girls’ limited education and enable them to enroll in schools that require English proficiency. 

After having instilled confidence in the 14 girls in the programme, Squash Dreamers now hopes to expand its services to reach as many Syrian girls as possible, according to the organisation's mission statement. 

When asked what she wants to do for work when she gets older, 10-year-old Sabah grinned and said "I want to become a professional squash player."