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Luma Mufleh Author

Luma Mufleh is the CEO and Founding Director of Fugees Family, a non-profit organisation devoted to working with child survivors of war, which uses football, education and community to empower refugee children to integrate successfully. The daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Mufleh grew up in Amman, Jordan. She was educated at an American school, where she was the only girl to play football. In 1997, she graduated from Smith College, U.S. with a B.A. in Anthropology, and received her U.S. citizenship in 2011. She became a football coach for refugee and immigrant children, which led her to discover a need for a new approach to education for these children in schools. Her Fugees Academies are considered a model for refugee education in the U.S. Mufleh was a Top 10 CNN Hero for 2016. In 2018, she was awarded the Diane von Furstenberg People's Choice Award. She is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr Community Service Award, the Smith College Medal, and the Common Ground Award, which is presented annually to honour accomplishments in conflict resolution, negotiation, community building and peace building. Her TED talk has been viewed over 1.8 million times.