Geneva sports project promotes integration

Geneva is a byword for big humanitarian institutions – the ICRC, UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO. There are plenty of smaller NGOs too, occupied in all sorts of good work, from demining to human rights, gender equality and a healthy environment. Their focus, however, is not Geneva itself, but the rest of the world.

Does that mean Geneva is utterly perfect? A 100% happy, fair, equal, clean and healthy place for all? Unfortunately not. I hate to disappoint, but at the time of writing, there is no place on earth that is totally perfect.

That’s why, in this edition of Inside Geneva, we decided to devote our summer profile to two women who have set their sights not on improving the entire planet, but on making things a little better here in the city that likes to call itself the world’s humanitarian capital.

Lena Menge is in charge of strategic partnerships at the prestigious Geneva Graduate Institute. Mahdie Alinejad is an asylum-seeker from Iran. At first sight, you might think a high-flying Geneva career woman has little in common with an asylum-seeker, but Lena and Mahdie share a goal: bringing Geneva’s disparate communities together, to learn from each other, and to encourage inclusion and integration.

Sport for inclusion

How do they do it? Through something else they have in common: a love of sport. They work together in an organisation called Flag 21. The initial concept came from a hackathon Lena attended, aimed at coming up with new ideas to include people. “We thought sport was a meaningful tool,” she remembers. Lena also brought some personal motivation to the task: her family is German, and, growing up as a German speaker in francophone Geneva, she says she “experienced firsthand how you can be seen as different, because you don’t speak the same language as the others”.

+ Is international law dead?

She also, during an internship with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), witnessed the plight of asylum-seekers held in detention centres at Geneva airport. From their windows, she says, “everyone could see only the airplane, and wondered if they were on the next one…being sent back”.

Mahdie, who is now 29, has been in Geneva for five years. Her story is a complicated one, but it’s enough to say her parents became convinced this intelligent, independent-minded and determined young woman would be safer outside Iran. But arriving in Switzerland, knowing no one, and spending ten months in a centre for asylum-seekers in Neuchâtel was lonely, and disorienting.

“It wasn’t easy; you feel lost,” she tells Inside Geneva. “You don’t really know what’s happening or where you are. It takes time to realise where you are and what you are supposed to do.”

Flag 21

But then one day Mahdie heard about a sports programme which brought locals, asylum-seekers and immigrants together. Lena’s hackathon idea had become reality, and now, every week, Flag 21 organises training at Geneva’s Park Eaux-Vives. “We started with running,” Lena says. “Because all you need is a pair of running shoes.”

For Mahdie, getting involved was enormously positive. “I think it’s kind of therapy for me,” she says. “Because no matter how I feel before I start doing sports, I feel great afterwards. I totally forget what I was worried about before.”

Mahdie is now a trainer with Flag 21, as are many other immigrants and asylum-seekers. They come from Iran, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, and many other places. Mahdie says the activities provide a huge confidence boost, although sometimes it takes time to persuade people – who may be lonely, depressed, and on the verge of giving up hope – to get involved.

+Listen now! Inside Geneva podcast: Q&A on migration, asylum, and refugees

“Some told me: ‘I prefer to just sit here and smoke,’” she recalls. “And that broke my heart, I’m like: ‘Why? Why are you not enjoying it?’” But it can be hard, Mahdie admits, “to find the connection… I used to be like that.”  

True integration

Now though, Flag 21 has dozens of members, and its activities have spread to yoga, hiking and sports for children. Most important of all, Lena points out, this is not a one way street, in which the good citizens of Geneva enjoy a warm virtuous glow from doing something for those less fortunate.

“It’s integration in the true sense of the word,” she says. “I learned so much from them. They have such resilience. They have so much strength to share with you that you come back and you think: ‘My God, my little problems are really nothing.’”

And, we should not forget that the life of an asylum-seeker is never easy. Although Mahdie has been in Switzerland for five years, has made friends, and is doing her bit for integration, she still has not been accepted as a refugee, which leaves her living in limbo, uncertain about what her future will be.

The situation, she confesses, makes it difficult to really settle into her new home. Although she feels welcomed by many of the people she has met in Geneva, she feels the system has not helped her. “Sometimes I say: ‘I still don’t feel welcome in this country because I’m not accepted. So don’t expect me to really feel that I love Switzerland. I’m not at that point yet. I’m trying to have this love in my heart, but I cannot find it yet.’”

At least Flag 21 is there to provide some structure and activity. Anyone interested in taking part can find them here: flag21.chExternal link.  Friendly faces, a warm welcome, and a good workout are guaranteed!

Find out more about the Inside Geneva podcast and our other Swiss podcasts in English here.