Restoring hope with South Sudan's blind football league

JUBA, South Sudan: When Mubarak Joseph Hilary lost his sight aged 15, the football-loving teenager dropped out of school and didn't leave home for seven years, resigned to a life spent indoors.

That was until he discovered the Juba Boys football club - one of a handful of teams established in South Sudan's capital to develop the talents of visually impaired players, with an eye on eventually competing in the Paralympic Games.

"I used to be very unhappy and lonely, but since I started blind football, I now feel free and happy," Mubarak, 27, told AFP.

He now captains Juba Boys, which is participating in the country's first ever blind football league, with the final due to be held next week.

In addition to physical challenges, visually impaired South Sudanese citizens also face discrimination and unequal access to opportunities in a country already grappling with endemic poverty, violence and natural disasters.

The head coach for the South Sudan Blind Football association, Simon Madol Akol, hopes to change that, one game at a time.

"If you can see people who are visually impaired, they are ... excluded from most sports. We see that this sport can bring visually impaired people back to the field," he told AFP.

"It was actually very hard for us when we first started (in 2020). We started with two players and it expanded till we reach(ed) where we are now."

According to Akol, blind football has slowly grown to involve more than 80 players who meet for matches in Juba, with plans to expand the game's reach to other parts of the country.

Blind football is still in its infancy in the world's newest nation, and the league organisers hope their teams can eventually begin competing in regional matches.

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