How Squash Dreamers is providing opportunities for young refugee girls in Jordan

Squash Dreamers provides squash training, academic tutoring, nutrition and wellbeing support to 55 girls from this demographic. Daisy Van Leeuwen-Hill, the program’s Executive Director, understands the success of Squash Dreamers as rooted in the nurturing of a community where the girls can flourish, feel safe and welcomed. Engagement can be challenging when providing academic tutoring or emotional and mental wellbeing support among youth populations. However, when introduced in an environment grown from sport, one that creates friends, enjoyable experiences and trust, this support becomes easier to implement.  

From the girls attending Squash Dreamers:

• 91% said they either enjoyed or really enjoyed going to school
• 86% said they believed they could achieve their dreams
• 100% said they were either confident or very confident about trying new sports
• 82% of parents said they saw an improvement in their child’s overall happiness
• 7 were awarded summer scholarships to attend boarding schools in the UK for medicine, psychology, English and squash in Cambridge, Canford school, and Bristol.

The support Squash Dreamers provides goes beyond just playing squash, but it is the sport element that creates the community, the platform and the readiness to grow and learn.  

To Amira, a participant, Squash Dreamers is first and foremost a family. She recounts instances where girls at her school have told her, “this is not your country and we don’t like you”. Sometimes, the bullying she is subjected to amounts even to beating. At Squash Dreamers, the staff recognise that the girls have become “sisters” and that “they love each other”. For Amira, it is playing squash that she enjoys more than anything else. For most of the girls at Squash Dreamers, playing squash is the only opportunity for physical activity and games in an environment where they feel comfortable and safe.  

While their squash sessions have helped create this caring and familial environment, they have also had a particular impact on the girls’ self-confidence. Amira tells us that she “feels strong when I play”. The sporting aspect of the program contributes to the girls feeling capable and feeling able to achieve their dreams. Many of the participants at Squash Dreamers suffer from the trauma of having lived in a warzone and from the ostracism they face from society. Their time playing squash and being active provides a healthy outlet that supports their mental wellbeing.  

At the heart of the squash sessions at Squash Dreamers is the idea that the coaches understand they are not only there to improve athletic performance but also to be mentors and wellbeing advocates for the young girls they support. It is the squash court where squash Dreamers have realised the girls feel most safe and therefore able to express themselves. Outside the four walls, because of their refugee status, because of their trauma, because of their experiences of being excluded from society, they are vulnerable and unable to open up. It is for this reason that the coaches must be best be equipped to support them.

Equally, they must be ready to tailor their support to each individual. The girls come from a variety of backgrounds, Sudanese, Syrian, some are refugees and some aren’t. Their varying experiences and unique challenges require personalised care. Connecting on a personal level establishes a trusting relationship where they are allowed to develop.  

Due to the nature of the Jordanian school shifts system, refugee girls sometimes only have access to two hours of schooling in a day. Squash Dreamers fills this gap in education, providing tutoring in a wide range of academic fields with a particular focus on English tuition. This supports their efforts to secure scholarships to attend esteemed schools, colleges and universities in Jordan and overseas. By combining achievements in academia and sport, this strengthens the ability for Squash Dreamers to win scholarships and create social mobility for the girls they work with.  

The success of Squash Dreamers lies in the long-term investment in the girls. This allows them to develop deep and meaningful relationships with their participants. Many Sport for Development initiatives are fleeting. Daisy believes in giving each girl the “best opportunity possible” and that is achievable through the environment that sport can create, a community nurtured over multiple years.

About the authors

Written by Oliver Hatfield and Jordan Jefferies from the PSA Foundation. The PSA Foundation supports Squash Dreamers as part of its Squash for Development network.