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Gifts from The Morning Star
Rotherham football project bringing refugees ‘happiness’ after years of fear
Sulieman Adam and Abel Zenebe during a United 4 Communities football session

WHEN rioters stormed a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and set it on fire last summer, Abel Zenebe was so scared he did not leave his house for two weeks.

Abel, 25, had travelled alone to Britain by boat from France and sought asylum amid civil conflict in his native Ethiopia.

He came to Rotherham last December and was recently granted residency. He is building a life for himself, and has just started GCSEs with a view to doing an accountancy course at university. He is also getting himself physically and mentally fit through his love of football.

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