Hi, I am Estelle Jean.

I am a humanitarian worker and a passionate runner. I have been volunteering 3 times in Greece last year through different missions and organizations to offer a humane response to the "refugee crisis". The last time was in December and it was to create my own project and organization.

In October last year, I started my own NGO, Sport For Refugees. The goal of the organization is to get refugees motivated, to get them moving and to keep them away from depression with sport.

I've started the project on the Greek Island of Lesvos with very good results as many refugee men joined our daily trainings and were very keen on always trying to improve and give their best.

The team started running everyday, doing core and strength workouts as well as some martial arts trainings and yoga classes in a community center for refugees called One Happy Family. In the evenings we also started joining Bikram yoga classes offered by a professional teacher in the capital city of the Island, Mytilini.

Sport For Refugees is now collaborating with Lesvos Yoga Project in order to build a space for refugees to train indoors and do yoga as well as meditation. This space would be build on the site of the community center to gather the facilities and make it as easy as possible for refugees to reach and stay everyday.

I introduced the project to Jaimie in late December and we agreed that a documentary to follow the creation and development of the NGO would be a perfect way to raise awareness towards a bigger audience.

Hi, my name is Jaimie Peeters.

For the past 10 years I have been a photographer and videographer in both the fashion and the wedding industry. My passion for photography came to me after having discovered the many documentary photographers from the black and white era. I taught myself to photograph with nothing more than a Leica M6, a 50mm lens and a bag of black and white film.

Next to being a photographer I am also a recreational runner and triathlete. I am a true believer that sport isn’t just a natural medicine for your body but even more so for your mind. Looking at my own life and health, both have changed tremendously after starting this new path of sports and exercise.

On an even more personal note; growing up in this world today I have come to be a passionate advocate for a better world. Sharing thousands of news, images, videos and more all on the topic of people in need, animals in need, hoping that I can contribute to create some awareness to what we are doing to each-other. For years I have waited for my chance to truly contribute with my skills and talent.

And that day has come.

Together with Estelle I want to make a documentary about Estelle’s project Sport For Refugees, which on it’s own is a magnificent project. But also I want to see up close how sports can mentally help the refugees in handling their dire situation a bit better.

I want to document the progress and effect of teaching and sharing sports and exercise with them, and share this with the world.

I believe this could be a beautiful story, a story about people helping people, about people in need smiling and laughing. People finding new passion, setting new goals and harvesting more courage by the simple task of running in a group, practicing yoga and meditation and more.

The idea is to share the documentary on social media; youtube, facebook, Vimeo anything that begets the most exposure to create the maximum awareness.

Documentary about Sport for Refugees

Les publications