Grenfell victims join survivors of genocide for ‘healing’ football tournament

SURVIVORS of the Grenfell Tower fire will join a football tournament for genocide survivors and victims of other disasters and atrocities for the first time.

“Team Grenfell” will take part in London Play2Remember, a five-a-side tournament designed to promote reconciliation through sport.

Organisers said they hope G re n fe l l re s i d e n t s w i l l meet refugees from countries including Sudan, Rwanda and Syria and reflect on their shared experience of seeing their worlds destroyed and losing loved ones.

The tournament will kick off at Burlington Danes Academy, which is near to the tower, on Sunday. The school took in pupils who were left without a school following the blaze.

Eric Murangwa, a Rwandan goalkeeper who was saved from the genocide against the Tutsi because he was recognised as a footballer, helped organise the tournament which has been running in London for six years.

Mr Murangwa, who set up the organisation Football For Hope, Peace And Unity, after the genocide, said: “We were all shocked by what happened at Grenfell Tower. The tournament takes place within a few hundred yards of the tower, we are in their backyard and we wanted to invite the survivors to show we stand with them.

“Sadlywe know that many of the people who were in the tower were from countries that have suffered similar problems to what Rwanda or Darfur have suffered from.”

Ma d dy C row t h e r, c o - director of Waging Peace, which is jointly organising the event, said it is designed to remember the dead and honour the living.

She said: “In the spirit of standing alongside survivo rs , L o n d o n Pl ay 2 Re - member also acknowledges the sorrow and outrage experienced by members of the west London community, who lost friends and family members.

“Many of the people living in Grenfell were refugees themselves, having fled war-torn countries. Survivors of genocide, state violence and disaster know what it is like to see their world destroyed. To lose loved ones, photographs of loved ones, treasured memories, and a whole way of life.

“Waging Peace and FHPU want London Pl ay2Remember to be a meeting place where people can learn more about the power to inspire, to unite, and create hope where once there was only despair.”