Damascus, Sept. 17 (SANA)On a dirtfootball fieldinEastern Ghouta, photographs printed on white and green jerseys showed the faces ofmissingand deceased fathers, accompanying their sons as they ran after the ball.

Before the match, the young players stood together in their kits, family portraits visible alongside team crests and numbers. Once play began, the photographs moved with them through the running, passing and challenges for the ball.

Around 60 participants came to al-Otaiba on Wednesday, September 16, for“A Memory That Never Fades,”an initiative organized by the Seed Foundation that turned a football match into an unconventional act of remembrance.

The gathering reflected a much broader legacy of disappearance in Syria. At least 177,021 people, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women, remain forcibly disappeared in Syria since March 2011, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

There were no monuments or formal ceremonies at al-Otaiba. Instead, remembrance was carried onto the field by the players themselves.

Carrying their fathers onto the field

The setting was simple: a dirt pitch, a goal with a red-and-white net and residential buildings surrounding the field.

Families and local residents watched as the teams competed, but the portraits on the players’ shirts gave the match a meaning beyond the result.

Latifa Shaaban, executive director of the Seed Foundation, said the initiative sought to preserve the memory of missing and deceased fathers through an activity closely connected to their children’s everyday lives.

“Football was a way to bring them together in a space where they could participate, connect and remember their parents,” Shaaban told SANA.

The match also gave young people with similar family experiences an opportunity to meet and form connections, she said.

But it was the photographs that gave the gathering its most distinctive image.

Rather than being displayed on a memorial or placed along the sidelines, the portraits became part of the game itself. They remained visible as players ran, defended and attacked.

For a few hours, remembrance was not confined to speeches or ceremonies. It became part of an activity shared by the players, their families and the wider community.

A game built around a shared experience

Shaaban said the participation of around 60 players underscored the importance of creating activities where young people with similar experiences can meet, interact and share memories.

The presence of relatives and local residents broadened the event beyond those on the field, turning it into a community gathering around the participants.

The Seed Foundation, established in Lebanon in 2020, organizes humanitarian and community initiatives involving sports, cultural and social activities and continues to operate a center there.

At al-Otaiba, that work took the form of a football match.

There were teams, spectators and competition. But on the players’ chests were reminders that not everyone who mattered to the day could be in the stands.

The photographs made sure they still had a place on the field.