Sport proves more than a pastime for Syrian refugees

Every Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut’s airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile.

The Sport 4 Development program, run by the U.N. children’s agency, aims to bring 12,000 children, mostly Syrian refugees, to blacktops and turf pitches this year to teach the basics of soccer and basketball, and to ease the pain of war and displacement.

“We try to get them out of their stressful environments and the frights that they’ve lived through,” said Maher Nakib, 40, the technical director of Hoops Lebanon, the sports association behind the project.