It is the conclusion of nearly two years of work and the possible start of a great adventure. Associated with the small Dutch company Klabu, the NGO Friendship and the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), PSG settled in 2022 in the heart of Cox’s Bazar. A place located in the south of Bangladesh, a few kilometers from the border with Myanmar (Burma), where the largest refugee camp in the world is located with nearly a million people from the Rohingya community, persecuted in Myanmar .
Concretely, the club of the capital installed there, in April first, a small truck in the colors red and blue, filled with sports equipment to circulate there in this huge camp, composed of 33 entities. And since last July, a sports center has been located at the center of “Camp 19” (40,000 people, including 20,000 minors) to which a thousand children have access each week. They find there a field, outfits, shoes… The whole functioning like a library with a borrowing system.
Met this Wednesday at the Parc des Princes, Jan von Hövell, founder of the start-up Klabu, and Alexander Webb, program manager of this non-profit company, show their pride in the outcome of this project. “Without PSG, nothing would have been possible, smiles Jan von Hövell, specifying that he does not pronounce his words in the air. The discussions with the local government were possible thanks to the image of this club”.
From the outset, the representatives of Klabu and those of the PSG detail another point: “The priority for these refugees is access to food as well as education. But, then, we can offer something new, to which the children do not have access”. Since 2017 and the spectacular development of the Cox’s bazar camp, which went from around 35,000 to more than 900,000 refugees, the place has gradually been “modernized”. The Rohingyas present are benefiting from the help of the NGO Friendship and the UNHCR to improve a life that seems hopeless.
With the prohibition to leave the borders of the camp to go to Bangladesh, they face an “understanding” government but which wishes that their presence remains “temporary”, adds Alexander Webb. Result: all constructions must be dismantled as soon as possible. This was part of the difficulties faced by Klabu and PSG. But, on the strength of its experience in Kenya, in another camp, Klabu precisely offers nomadic structures, allowing access to the greatest number.
In Bangladesh, the start-up has added the strength of the PSG image. Football, badminton, cricket, basketball… Rohingya children, girls and boys, have the means to escape for a few hours a day or a week. The following ? Why not multiply these structures in the other entities of this huge camp. PSG and Klabu are also developing a special jersey to finance the operations.