'Sport brings people together': A non-profit is helping kids bond through soccer

Jean-Claude Munyezamu doesn't recall when he first started playing soccer — all he knows for sure is that he's been fascinated by the sport ever since he was a child.

Munyezamu, who is the founder of a local non-profit group, Umoja Community Mosaic, loved the sport so much that he learned how to make soccer balls out of plastic bags at an early age.

He used this skill to make soccer balls for children at a refugee camp in Kenya in the 1990s.

Munyezamu, who grew up in Rwanda, decided to leave his home country on account of growing instability and conflict in 1993.

"We knew that genocide was going to happen because it didn't come overnight. There was a preparation," Munyezamu said.

"There was already discrimination for our community. However, in 1993, it was the worst, and we knew that is not going to get better. So I took [a] risk and I left."

Munyezamu stayed in Kenya until 1998 before he came to Canada in search of a better life for his family.

Moving to Calgary presented a different set of challenges as he adjusted to a new culture and tried to set things up for his family.

Munyezamu, who stayed in a public housing unit, noticed that kids in the local community didn't have much to do and would inadvertently get into trouble.

"Children … had no option. They didn't play sport, they didn't do anything," he said before adding that he wondered whether it was a good idea to introduce them to soccer and teach them the basics of the game.

Determined to try steering the kids in the right direction, he started teaching soccer on a whim and was taken aback by how popular it was. Dozens of kids showed up and the news spread like wildfire, inspiring Munyezamu to make his initiative bigger and better.

Umoja Community Mosaic,