Children in Asian Refugees United's Soccer for Success program huddle during soccer practice in Harrisburg, Pa., on April 16, 2025.Maansi Srivastava/NPR hide caption HARRISBURG, Pa.
— At a park in the hills of central Pennsylvania, children in jerseys shout in a mix of English and Nepali, chasing a ball across the grass while their parents watch from the sidelines.A mother cheers on her son.
For this community of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees, the field is more than a field.It's where they've rebuilt a homeland that no longer exists.Tens of thousands of Bhutanese refugees settled in Harrisburg starting in the late 2000s, after their families were forced out of Bhutan in an ethnic-cleansing campaign on the Lhotshampa people, as the country sought to modernize and unify and the government enacted policies in the 1980s that targeted ethnic Nepalis' legal status and culture.
The refugees spent nearly two decades in camps in Nepal.It was there that soccer became a lifeline.
Barred from work permits, families built farms and schools by day.At night, they turned to the sport to help cope with their traumas.
One refugee, Kalu Singh Tamang, had been a national soccer star in Bhutan before the expulsion.In the Beldangi camps of Jhapa, Nepal, he coached thousands of fellow refugees on how to play.
He died in the camp, never getting the chance to leave.Children from ARU's Soccer for Success program play in a scrimmage during the Kalu Singh Tamang Memorial Championship in Harrisburg, Pa., on Sept.
21, 2025.Maansi Srivastava/NPR hide caption Bhagawat Dulal, a coach for Asian Refugees United's Soccer for Success program, poses for a portrait during soccer practice in Harrisburg, Pa., on Apr...