A football league for children is expected to be established in Iraq by the end of the month in a project aimed at contributing to the reconciliation between various ethnic groups in the country. The initiative belongs to an American woman who has discovered her passion for football in her country of origin, Romania.
The victory of the Iraqi national team in the Asian Cup in July 2007 has generated a wave of enthusiasm across Iraq as the country was struggling with a wave of armed conflicts between various ethnic groups. But the event echoed in the US, where a Boston-based tourism agent decided to print 100 posters of the winning team.
Roxana von Kraus, a US citizen originating from Romania, decided to send the posters to her son Brian, who was in deployed to Iraq. Captain Brian von Kraus shared the posters with Iraqi children while on a patrolling mission in the Anbar province.
The children were filled with joy and he got rid of all posters within days, Brian told BBC, saying that he and his mates were even invited to dinner by the leaders of a local community.
That is how it crossed his mind to establish a football league for Iraqi children.
He talked to his mother in Boston and jointly decided to initiate a fund raising project to buy equipment for the football playing children in Iraq. They managed to collect some 20,000 dollars in three months.
Roxana von Kraus says she always believed football - or soccer, in US terms - can solve a lot of problems and that she has one more wish - to help young Iraqi football players get to play with US children. A football league for children is expected to be established in Iraq by the end of the month in a project aimed at contributing to the reconciliation between various ethnic groups in the country. The initiative belongs to an American woman who has discove
