Rohingya

 

The Rohingya People are Muslim minority in the North of Myanmar, living mostly in the Rakhine State that borders Bangladesh. Since 2016, the Myanmar government is attempting a genocide against the Rohingya. That led to one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the last decade, which saw over 700.000 Rohingya leave the country, mostly to enormous refugee camps in Bangladesh. These camps still exist and again and again are in humanitarian crisis themselves, as they are underfunded, in swamp-like territory, understuffed and extremely overcrowded.

A few Rohingya have left Myanmar to Malaysia, too. Some of these founded "Rohingya FC" to play football, stay together as a Rohingya community and raise awareness of the Rohingya cause. That team, based in Kuala Lumpur, made global headlines in 2017ish and ultimately joined CONIFA, hoping to attend a World Football Cup at some point.

That never happened, unfortunately, but at least CONIFA was able to get them a kit deal. I convinced the small brand Leyburn to produce a bespoke kit for them, shipping the kits out to the team in Malaysia quickly. I am not aware of a picture of the team wearing it, but I do know from my Rohingya mates that they did well receive the shirts and used or use them in local training sessions and friendlies.

The shirt itself has a quite a simple design, but one that Rohingya FC actively helped designing and one that is in line with their logo. Thus, it perfectly suited them, indeed. I am not sure Ross, the owner of Leyburn, will ever read that: But thanks Ross, for this shirt and for the many others you have produced for teams in dire need of support!