SADAF

Imagine that, for situations completely beyond your control, you’re forced to flee your home, the only one you’ve ever known. And imagine that, not even a full year later, you move to a country whose language and culture may as well be completely unknown to you. 

That hypothetical is Sadaf Batoori’s reality. After the Taliban recaptured her home country of Afghanistan, she and her family escaped to Pakistan, as they would have been in danger had they remained. She stayed in Pakistan for six months before arriving in Edmonton in January. The difficulty of restarting became apparent right away. 

“You start from zero,” Sadaf says. “It is hard to start a new life.”

Sadaf is also getting used to differences between Canadian and Afghani cultures, beyond just language.

“In Afghanistan,” she explains, “the father supports the family. But here, everyone is working by themselves. That's why it's something challenging for me.”

Part of the process when Afghani families arrived in Edmonton was staying, sometimes for over a month, in a hotel, both to quarantine during the height of COVID-19 and to wait for more permanent housing. Sadaf’s case was no different. 

While in the hotel, Sadaf started hearing about the Free Play program, which had set up a special program for Afghan kids during the mornings, so they could get a break from the repetitiveness of life in the hotel.

Free Play staff would pick them up on a bus and bring them for 4 hours of play, crafts, snacks and lunch.

Once Sadaf was out of the hotel and settled in a school, she and her friend Nargis were invited to Free Play’s “Pathway to Leadership” program for youth ages 13-18. There, they would continue playing sports, but also learn how to be a leader. Youth pick to either focus on soccer, basketball, flag football or hockey.

Currently, Sadaf is working as a junior coach in Free Play’s summer camps, where she helps kids in grades five and six, providing support for the coaches while training herself to be a coach in the future. 

This is not the first time Sadaf has worked with children, as she also worked as a kindergarten teacher back in Afghanistan. However, there was a difference in approach there, as children were not always allowed to pursue any greater dreams, either due to lack of opportunities or outside pressure.

“They’d like to be someone,” she explains, “but they don't have the opportunity. Maybe their relatives, their family don't want [those opportunities].”

“Here, every kid's saying, ‘I want this dream’, and they have this power, this opportunity, to [achieve] them.”

In several instances, Sadaf has put her experience teaching kindergarten to good use with Free Play. One of her favourite moments in the program is when she was asked to read the kids a story. 

“My English is not good,” she says, selling herself short, “but they said that ‘you are the best reader that I have seen in my life’.” 

She smiles. “That was like, my best moment here.

Coming from the other side of the world with little familiarity of a new culture is no small feat, but it’s the reality for many kids in Free Play. And as far as coaches go, there are few better-equipped than Sadaf to keep them in good hands. 

“When you’re playing with [the kids], and they like you,” Sadaf says, “It makes me happy to be here.”

Written by Stefan Salegio