We Dare to Dream
Discover what went down during a special screening of "We Dare to Dream" organised by KLABU and the Olympic Refuge Foundation.
Last week, the cinema Het Ketelhuis opened its doors for our community to experience “We Dare to Dream”, a film documenting five refugees’ journey to the Olympics. It is a tale of resilience and inspiration, hardship and loss, hope and home. Watching the film with our KLABU family was special - it resembled following a live sport tournament as the audience cheered out loud for the Olympic refugee athletes.
The documentary was followed by a panel talk with Waad Al-Kateab, the Syrian activist and Oscar-nominated film director and Muna Dahouk, the 2020 Tokyo Refugee Olympic Team judoka. They were joined by Peter van Tarel, who is the head of the Dutch Volleyball Federation for Sports Development, as well as Charles - our KLABU community member in charge of KLABU’s weekly football workouts for newcomers and locals in Amsterdam.
Panelists Waad (who joined us online), Muna, Charles, and Peter, together with host Angelo
Angelo, a KLABU friend and moderator of the panel created a space where the panelists felt comfortable sharing their experiences and emotions. The conversation transcended sports and Olympic Games. It touched upon the importance of community, determination and tools provided by sport activities. Charles spoke about empathy and a sense of togetherness between the migrants and the local community when playing football on Thursdays.
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"It's about trying to come up with ways of working together and making it work. We build bonds and a camaraderie between us and the local community and it's special. I've learned to be thoughtful of others, considering people's backgrounds and interests."
2020 Refugee Olympian Muna Dahouk
Host Angelo
Head of the Dutch Volleyball Federation Peter van Tarel
Angelo and Charles after the panel talk
Both having fled from Syria and based in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands respectively, Waad and Muna initially met during the 2020 Olympic Games. Reunited at the panel talk, they shared a beautiful moment speaking Arabic and expressed how proud they are of each other and the work they’re both doing.
Out of 29 refugee athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics, “We Dare to Dream” documents the stories of five. As the team hopefully grows in numbers and strength in Paris this year, Waad mentioned there are currently over 114 million refugees all over the world. “As we speak, this number is increasing” she mentioned and asked the audience to reflect:
"We are not superheroes or villains. We are not victims. We are normal people trying to do our best to live our life and to survive. My message is for everyone to rethink what refugee means and to provide safety, space and dignity."
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KLABU Community Members at cinema Het Ketelhuis
We feel very appreciative to be surrounded by such a fantastic community of supporters. We would like to thank the Olympic Refuge Foundation and Het Ketelhuis for making the event possible. We'd also like to extend our gratitude to the panellists for sharing their Unbeatable Spirit stories with us. Lastly, thank you to the attendees - our community, partners, friends and family who all came together to celebrate the power of sports and support KLABU. We've come this far together, but we're nowhere near done!
