As a young child coming out of a refugee camp,
coming into this world, trying to build his career in football,
that was not an easy thing.
Barefoot to Boots is an Australian-based non-profit organisation, that works to
help refugees up in northern Kenya, in a place called Kakuma.
Because Awer was born in the camp,
me and Awer had the intention to go back and revisit our past.
But, to do that we never wanted to come back empty-handed.
We were able to go to his club and to other clubs in Adelaide and ask them for
training gear. So they gave us jerseys for playing.
We had only two big suitcases full of clothes and a few footballs.
That's how Barefoot to Boots was born.
It was an idea to really help enlighten the life of
refugees wherever they are.
A refugee camp is like a prison without a wall. You know, you sit there,
you wait for food,
you wait for all the resources to come to you. We used to go and
search around the garbage area and find a plastic bag
and we string it together to be able to
make a football. People go to the pitch,
play, forget the poor living condition of the camps.
But, if you can have a feel for a real ball that people play football in the big arena,
it's already give them an automatic feeling that they just don't belong
to the camp,
they also belong to the other part of the world. A refugee
child sitting somewhere watching Mabil, it would have been a big thing to them.
He sent them hope.
Awer Mabil opens the scoring for Australia.
It's his first goal in World Cup qualifier for 2022.
I think every time he puts on a shirt to play for the nation,
he's not doing it for himself, he's doing it for the communities in South
Australia, the refugee community, also for all Australians.
When we came back, we were joined by people who want to help more.
We were given a lot of stuff from Royal Adelaide Hospital.
We took those to a new hospital that was built. Our equipment was the
first to be donated. We were able to help girls.
We gave them sanitary pads,
which helped them go to school without having to struggle.
I'm a hundred per cent proud of his achievement, as a brother,
as an Australian as well.
First and foremost, it's about winning that game, wanting to do extremely
well for the nation, but also him, himself,
being a role model to all those kids and giving them a pathway. In the
playoff game against Peru, a penalty shootout,
we got to the sixth penalty and Awer stepped up and he was the man that was
going to take the nation to the World Cup.
Mabil against Gallese.
Beautifully tucked away by Awer Mabil. And Australia lead again,
five - four.
People will talk about you for a long time about what you achieve, but
also how you helped.
He leads by example and he shows the rest of Australia what can happen if you
have a strong mentality and you fulfill your dreams.
He's gonna serve the people he needs to serve,
he's gonna play the football he wants to play, and he's going to make big
impacts as he wanted to.