AMMAN — Young business owner Anas Ziyadneh grew up in a
rural area of
Jordan. His passion for football has driven him to open a social
organization that has provided football training to thousands of children
living, like him, in rural areas.
اضافة اعلان
“My story inspired the idea of the initiative as I lived in
a rural area in Jordan where I was passionate about the game of football from
my early years,” Ziyadneh said in an interview with
Jordan News. “And I began
to look for a place to channel my passion for football.”
“I turned to the street because there were no pitches in my
area,” the founder recalled. “I painted myself a pitch by putting two stones on
the ground as a goal post, and the neighborhood kids began to gather around me
for a zealous atmosphere full of love and friendliness.”
However, his passion conflicted with the realities of his
life in Jordan. “I had a deadly spherical talent compared to my peers, and
because of the lack of mentors or anyone interested in talented kids in
general, particularly in those rural areas, I decided to forget my dream of
being a football player,” the 25-five-year-old football lover said.
“So, I went to the university to study engineering. Over the
years, I remembered my childhood days and decided to complete the dream when I
saw the glimmer of childhood in the eyes of the children who practiced
football,” Ziyadneh said. “From here, the thought to create the Hajareen
initiative and its slogan ‘From the Street to the Football Field’ came to be;
to help these kids to play in safe areas like playgrounds, with proper sports
equipment. We can then lead children in marginalized areas to their ambition of
becoming professional football players.”
Ziyadneh’s educational initiative provides children from
underprivileged communities with free weekly football training sessions. They
use specific exercises to cultivate interpersonal skills such as self-confidence,
teamwork, and decision-making skills.
“The first factor that helped me in entrepreneurial work is
that I am a person that is not afraid of failure and I love trying many things,
and I do as much as possible to go through all the difficulties,” he said.
“Also, I used to promote the Hajareen initiative on social media sites. We got
15 sources of local and Arab coverage and because Hajareen is a community
initiative.”
Through
Hajareen, 3,500 boys and girls were trained in
different regions of
Jordan have received football training and over 3,450 have
participated in festivals in schoolyards and playgrounds. Fifty of them have
received professional training in football.
“I am fond of the Hajareen initiative, and I postponed
semesters at the university so that the initiative does not stop,” said
Ziyadneh. “When we started the initiative, it was (an) ... initiative (based
on) my friends’ love of the sport, we did not wait for a material income.”
The initiative did run into some obstacles. “The
difficulties we faced were financial (ones) because we used to book the
football fields. We wanted to transport the children,” Ziyadneh said. “In the
beginning, it was difficult, but my insistence on this initiative overcame
this.”
“One of the difficulties is that no one believed in the
idea,” he added. “Everyone said that ‘you were wasting your future on something
that has no benefit,’ but with time they came to believe in the idea.”
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