By Claire Bourgeois

6 years ago on her way home from her cafe job in Clarkston, Georgia, Jordanian born Luma Mufleh took a wrong turn that would change the course of her life. She stumbled upon  a group of children. Barefooted, they were kicking around a deflated soccer ball between rock-marked goal posts. Who were these children? “They didn’t look American, it’s a scene that I would see over and over again in Jordan and other parts in the world…but never in the United States” said Mufleh in a recent interview with CBS. Her initial curiosity at this unique scene caused her to return the next day. She gifted the kids with a new soccer ball and in return asked to play. What Mufleh came to realize as she continued to play with these kids, was that her new teammates were actually refugees.

In fact, Clarkston is just 1 of 350 U.S cities in which families, who have escaped war or persecution in their home countries, are resettled. Uprooted without choice, countless families and orphaned children flee to the U.S. in order to seek asylum from their war torn countries. Disconnected from all things familiar – their communities, cultures and even their own families – refugee children face a serious struggle to find a sense of belonging in their new homes.

Mufleh has certainly found a solution for this struggle. Coach Mufleh began the Fugees soccer team in 2004 in order to provide refugee boys with free access to this organized sport. As the team evolved she began to realize that the needs of these kids extended far beyond the soccer field. In hopes of addressing needs such as appropriate education and refugee specific support, Mufleh founded the Fugees Family in 2004. This aptly named organization has used the game of soccer to motivate refugee youth, and provide them with the facilities and support necessary to realize their infinite potential. In order to serve the comprehensive needs of these children the recreational soccer team has now extended to “year-round soccer for 86 boys and girls aged 10-18, after-school tutoring and soccer for 50 elementary-aged students, a private academy serving 36 students, and an academic enrichment summer camp.”

What about the future? After buying 19 acres of land in Clarkston from generous donations, Mufleh has big dreams to build a permanent Fugees Academy which will have a wider reach to refugee children in need .“I see it becoming a national model that shows how to teach refugee kids successfully so it’s not just our kids that are affected by what we do, it grows to something so much bigger” Mufleh says ambitiously. She hopes to raise enough money – 5 million dollars to be exact- in order to bring her ideas from paper to practice. “It’s going to happen…we don’t have any other choice…and if you want something to happen, you can make it happen. That’s what we teach the kids.”

Watch her interview on CBS: