Omahans help by donating sports equipment to Afghan athletes
BY TIM ELFRINK
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha soccer coach Karl Ostrand stood on an uneven dirt field inside Afghanistan's Ghazi Stadium in Kabul - the site of public executions under the Taliban.
Children play in the stadium where people once were executed. Omahan Karl Ostrand took the photo while delivering donated equipment. Sports can make a big difference for youths in a war-torn nation, Ostrand said. He found it an "eye-opening trip," as his photos attest.
But on this cool January day, watching a team of young Afghans playing soccer on the rough field, Ostrand saw hope for Afghanistan's future.
"It was such a powerful image, because the stadium still looks exactly the same as in the pictures of the Taliban execution fields - except instead of executions, there was the country's under-15 boys team out there practicing," he said.
In a nation where the resurgent Taliban cause daily violence and more than half the population struggles in poverty, the lack of safe sports facilities and equipment can seem a petty problem.
But as Ostrand saw firsthand - while delivering about $4,000 in soccer gear donated by Omaha businesses and Creighton University - sports can make a big difference for youths in a war-torn nation.
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Ostrand, 33, is director of operations for Gladiator Soccer Club in Omaha. His Afghan project began in December, as he and his wife, Julie, were planning a trip to Kabul to visit Julie's brother, a teacher there.
"I thought, 'We're going there anyway - I wonder if we can bring them some sort of hope,'" Ostrand said. "Because, in the grand scheme of things, sports can bring people together that don't have a lot of hope."
Using his connections to Omaha soccer programs, he started looking for donations. In a little more than a month, he had collected $4,000 in balls, jerseys and other gear from his Gladiator program, local stores Soccer Internationale and Soccer Zone, and from Creighton's women's team.
"It's hard to think about how difficult their life is in Afghanistan when we're surrounded by all the opportunities we have here," said Ivonne Valentin, a former Creighton player and current assistant coach.
The Ostrands flew from Omaha to Kabul in early January, keeping their fingers crossed that the five boxes of equipment they had shipped earlier would be waiting for them in Afghanistan.
Not only did the equipment arrive, Ostrand found Ayub's contacts in the Afghan community eager to help get it to children who could use it.
Walied Osman, director of a nonprofit that connects Afghan rug weavers with fair-trade foreign buyers, took a box of equipment bound for the country's Bamiyan province. Osman said he immediately recognized the value of the donation.
"The average salary of a Bamiyan local worker is about $25 per month - that is, if you are even fortunate to have a job," Osman said in an e-mail interview. "A parent's greatest joy would be just to be able to have some spare income to buy a soccer ball for their kids."
Some equipment went to schools. Ostrand hauled the rest himself to Afghanistan's Ghazi Stadium. Because he had no appointment and held no government position, the Omaha coach expected to simply drop off the balls and jerseys at the front gate and hope they would be put to good use.
Instead, he found himself in the office of Karim Keramuddin, president of the Afghanistan Football Federation. Keramuddin promised to give the equipment to Afghanistan's fledgling women's national team, which only recently began playing matches outside the country.
"He came to Kabul and gave us some of the football supplies that are very important to the all-football family here in Afghanistan," Keramuddin said via e-mail.
For women, in particular, soccer is helping to change a culture that has long oppressed and marginalized them, Ayub said.
"Sports in general can give women better self-esteem, a better a sense of identity. They can learn to take that confidence and that ability, to know who they are and to take that off field with them," said Ayub, whose Afghan Youth Sports Exchange works to build sports opportunities in her homeland.
Back in Omaha, Ostrand said he'll take a different perspective to the soccer field as he coaches local 12-year-olds.
"It was an incredible, eye-opening trip. It put things in perspective for me, about how blessed we are in America and how much difficulty others have doing things we take for granted."
Ostrand's Afghan acquaintances said the Omaha contributions will make a lasting impact.
Osman said it is Ostrand and others like him who give "these people and children a glimmer of hope - that people across vast oceans think of their despair."
"The sound of kids laughing at play is universal."
