In Melbourne, Jonasi Eangano Singehebhuye, whose family was originally from Burundi, took a series of photos for the Goal Click Refugees project at the Victoria African Cup of Nations 2021 in early January.

“I intended to showcase the unity and progress brought by football at a grassroots and community level within Victoria,” Singehebhuye said. “They also intended to show the contribution and positive engagement of the African diaspora.””

He has played for Croatian, Greek, Italian and Albanian teams in Victoria, which included Australians. “All in all, Aussies are great,” he said, “they can be very relaxed and inclusive. Which is such a joy.”

His family fled Burundi in 2005 to escape fighting, settling for a while in Tanzania. But it proved a precarious existence and the family was forced to move again – to the other side of the world.

A self-confessed football fanatic, Singehebhuye works as a mentor and coach, and was named as the Football Victoria Coach of the Year.

“Football was the binding factor and the ice breaker that facilitated my rapid assimilation into Australian culture,” he said, adding it helped him overcome difficult experiences in his early years in Australia. “Football has literally been the binding piece for my mental health, for positive community engagement, an icebreaker in awkward situations, and a pathway for inter-community unity.”