“I know now that I can do many things I thought impossible.” Mubarak Joseph Hilary, blind since the age of 15, lived in seclusion at home in South Sudan for seven years. But everything changed when he discovered soccer was adapted for the visually impaired.
The 27-year-old soccer enthusiast found hope and self-confidence when he joined the Juba Boys, one of the few blind futsal teams in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, five years ago.
Mubarak Joseph Hilary, the proud captain of the team, will lead his team in the finals of the first season of the national championship for the visually impaired, which will take place next week. This is significant in an African country that, after five years of civil war between 2013 and 2018, still faces violence, endemic poverty, and natural disasters.
In the world’s youngest country, which has been independent since 2011 and lacks much infrastructure, people with disabilities face myriad difficulties in getting around, finding employment, or playing sports.
Simon Madol Akol, coach of South Sudan’s ‘Blindfutsal’ federation, says that visually impaired people are often considered incapable of doing much and are excluded from most sports. However, soccer gives them the opportunity to actively participate in the sporting arena.
Although they started with just two players in 2020, there are now more than 80 players competing in matches in Juba, with ambitions to expand to other parts of the country. Four clubs are participating in the newly created championship, which was inaugurated last month.
In the matches, two teams of five players face off, with four visually impaired field players and a sighted goalkeeper. The players chase a ball bearing a bell and receive instructions from the two guides behind each goal, as well as from the sounds emitted by the goal posts. To avoid injury, players must shout “Voy” in Spanish as they approach their opponents.
Mubarak Joseph Hilary, who played soccer before losing his sight, says injuries are part of the game. Thanks to his renewed confidence through sports, this man, the oldest of eight siblings, has opened a small kiosk selling tobacco in his modest house made of bamboo and dirt with a cloth roof, surrounded by lemon and guava trees.
With the profits from her small business, she has returned to school this year after dropping out when she lost her sight in 2011. Now, without fear, she walks the ten kilometers to her school with her white cane, giving her newfound autonomy.