Plywood Presents: The Fugees Family & Luma Mufleh

Luma Mufleh, the courageous founder and no-nonsense coach of a local soccer team, the Fugees Family. A number of years ago, Luma was driving through her neighborhood when she discovered a group of local refugee boys playing soccer and, a lover of the sport herself, asked to join in the game. As she began to build friendships with the boys, she was heartbroken to learn about the hard conditions many of their families were living in as they struggled to make ends meet. Impassioned to help these boys whom she already considered family, Luma sold her own business to start a fair-wage maid service to help employ some of the mothers of the refugee families, and soon after turned a parking lot soccer team into an after-school program, a mentoring organization, and darn good soccer team. The Fugees Family, made up of boys from war-torn countries from all over the world, aims to strengthen and empower the boys, help them with their studies, and teach them life skills as they daily learn from Luma what it means to put others before oneself. Luma's humility and hesitancy as she spoke only added to the warmth of her account, and serves as a needed reminded that our creativity and good ideas can be used to create needed change in our own neighborhoods and cities.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Fugees Family
• Inspiration
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Plywood People
• Jeff Shinabarger
• Making Ideas Happen
• Luma Mufleh
• Atlanta
• Social Innovation
• Soccer
• interview
• Women Speakers
• New York Times environment