From Refuge to Resilience: How Gebirah’s “GameChangers” Program Is Empowering the Marginalised Through Sports

tonytangebirah
Jul 13, 2025
4 min read

Refugee children under training in futsal in Bogor

The Court Where Hope Was Rekindled

In the early morning haze of Jakarta, a small group of girls walk barefoot down a dusty path. Some wear sandals too worn to stay on properly, others carry plastic bags with homemade water bottles as weights. They gather near a cracked concrete court next to their refugee shelter. With secondhand racquets in hand and tattered shuttlecocks, they begin their badminton drills — not with the hope of Olympic medals, but for something even more precious: dignity.

These girls are refugees, part of a larger community marooned in Indonesia, stateless and stuck in limbo. With no legal right to work or study, many live in a fog of uncertainty, stripped of identity, forgotten by policy. But every morning on that court, they are not refugees. They are athletes. Teammates. Learners. Leaders.

Women refugees in a workshop conducted by Gebirah's women volunteers in Indonesia

This is where Gebirah’s GameChangers Sports Program begins — in broken courts, in abandoned lots, in the overlooked places — but also in hearts longing for purpose and belonging.

Why Sport — and Why Now?

Globally, over 114 million people are forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution, and disaster (UNHCR, 2024). For many, especially youth, the displacement lasts for years, even decades. Without legal status, education, or employment, an entire generation risks growing up without hope.

Forcibly displaced population doubles to 120 million over the past 10 years... Aljazeera

Studies show that refugees experience rates of depression and PTSD up to 10 times higher than the general population (Fazel et al., Lancet, 2005). And yet, sport is proven to counter this: A 2021 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that regular participation in sport significantly improves refugees' self-esteem, social connectedness, and mental health.

Despite this, less than 3% of humanitarian aid is directed toward sport or play-based interventions (UNESCO, 2023).

This is the silent crisis. And this is the opportunity.

Introducing GameChangers: More Than Just a Game

GameChangers is Gebirah’s new flagship sports initiative that reimagines sport not as a pastime — but as a life-altering tool for the displaced, the poor, and the forgotten. As a Singapore-based humanitarian organisation, Gebirah works in refugee camps, slums, and underserved communities across Southeast Asia and beyond, using sports as a transformative force.

GameChangers rests on four powerful pillars:

1. Activating the Individual

Sport nurtures agency. It creates a sense of identity in those who’ve lost their names to asylum case numbers. Whether it’s learning footwork in badminton, defensive drills in futsal, or teamwork in volleyball, the body begins to believe what the mind dared not: I can still grow. I am more than my status.

🧠 Did you know? Physical activity has a 48% stronger correlation to improved mental health in refugee adolescents than passive psychosocial activities like counselling alone (Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford, 2020).

2. Building Inclusive Communities

When our refugee women in Jakarta gather to play, their children come too. They laugh. They cheer. They forget, momentarily, the weight of war and exile. Coaches — even online volunteers — create safe spaces where people of different backgrounds can come together, not in conflict, but collaboration.

In these spaces, play becomes peacebuilding.

🎾 “We play with joy. We forget we are refugees.” — Aysha, 17, Afghanistan

3. Transforming Broken Systems

Sport becomes a soft entry point to tackle harder issues. From gender inequality to healthcare gaps, GameChangers helps communities reclaim agency.

Take our female athletes: in many cultures, sport for women is frowned upon. Yet, through badminton, they gain voice, confidence, and leadership. It becomes a form of quiet resistance — and eventual transformation.

💡 Fact: In displaced populations, only 18% of adolescent girls participate in sport (Right To Play, 2022). Gebirah is determined to increase that in every camp we serve.

4. Engaging the Global Sports Ecosystem

We believe brands, clubs, coaches, and athletes have a profound role to play. Imagine a local football club in Singapore mentoring refugee teens in Malaysia. Or a retired Olympian sponsoring a sports scholarship for girls in an Indonesian camp.

We are actively inviting:

Sports coaches to volunteer online and offline
Corporates to co-fund tournaments or gear
Athletes to use their voice for social advocacy
UN agencies and social service orgs to collaborate for scale

Let’s stretch the definition of “team” — to include all of us.

Case Study: A Court, A Coach, A Change

In Jakarta, with Gebirah’s support, a group of refugee women now train weekly in badminton. We provided equipment and access to a local court. What they lack is a professional coach. That’s where you come in.

If you're a coach, you can mentor remotely: watch practice videos, offer drills, guide exercises. Once ready, we’ll coordinate local tournaments — creating not just games, but platforms for mobility, travel, and recognition.

It’s not charity. It’s capacity-building through competition.

Why It Matters to Corporates and Sports Leaders

Sport is a powerful channel for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), youth outreach, and employee engagement. A partnership with Gebirah’s GameChangers program can:

Empower your brand through authentic social impact
Offer meaningful staff volunteer opportunities
Open up ESG-aligned reporting with measurable results
Align your leadership with global SDGs and humanitarian goals

🌍 In fact, Sport is a recognized enabler of Sustainable Development, specifically SDGs 3, 4, 5, 10, 16, and 17 (UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development, 2022).

Final Whistle: Hope Through Movement

In a world that too often sees the poor and displaced as passive recipients of aid, GameChangers flips the narrative. They are not waiting to be saved — they are ready to play, ready to lead, ready to win.