Stories of Argentine volunteers at the World Cup in Qatar: where and how they live, what tasks they perform and what FIFA gives them

Wherever you are. Everywhere in Qatar. In the subway (subway). In stadiums. On the road. In hotels. In press centers. Everywhere there are those people with teal shirts with purple that identifies them and differentiates them from the fans or ordinary passers-by. They are the volunteers who work at the World Cup, the little worker ants who multiply and help so that no one gets lost and can get where they need to go without problems and also to clarify the doubts of journalists and fans in general.

There are five thousand international volunteers, plus the thousands who come from here, from Qatar. Among them, about 30 are Argentines aged between 19 and 50. They all live together in the neighborhood called Barwa Al Janoub in the city of Al-Wakrah, away from the center of Doha (about two hours by public transport), which has been set up to host people for the World Cup.

It is a residential complex that is accessed from several main gates as if it were a private neighborhood, but no. These are two-storey buildings, all the same (monobloc type), divided into so-called modules clusters. Each bunch It has a letter and a number to identify them. That would be the address of each department.

“It’s a group of buildings and they put us all here because there wasn’t space to store so many people. Both volunteers and normal tourists live here. Most of the Argentinian fans are here because it’s the cheapest place to stay throughout Qatar”, says Guadalupe Camurati a clarionstrolling through the streets of Barwa, the Argentine heart in the Arabian peninsula.

A room here costs $86 a night and has two single beds and a bathroom. Each bunch It has a kitchen, refrigerator and microwave. Each module is like a small neighborhood with an entrance door to an internal patio and from there the rooms are divided.

In the neighborhood there is private security, a clinic, a restaurant, a basketball court and a soccer field where they compete until five in the morning. The Argentines have barbecues and with the help of a sheik they have meat and hamburgers for the rituals before the games.

Guadalupe is 24 years old and from Buenos Aires. She joined FIFA to volunteer in Qatar and was one of those selected after passing some filters. In an hour-long first interview, all kinds of questions and personal expectations are asked. Then, moving on to the next phase, you are already talking about the World Cup on time.

“It’s a slow process, all through the mail. Once they select you, they offer you a role. I took it on as I didn’t know if they would offer me another one and it turned out to be quite interesting as I’m as a team leader in the main press center (IBC) of Qatar”, explains Guada.

The work of the volunteers is not paid for by FIFA. “It has been established from the beginning that this is a voluntary work. They don’t pay us to be here. They give us free accommodation and transportation. They give us clothes and merchandise. They give us a free ticket to see a game that you get at random. They give us a meal for every work shift done. And in the morning they leave the food for breakfast in the fridge bunch”. Details Guadalupe, who paid for the ticket out of her own pocket, like all her companions.

There are students and workers, even globetrotters. What tasks do they have to perform? They divide them into areas such as hotels, stadiums, the press centre, public transport and fan festivals.

“I work in the stadium in the part with reduced mobility. We welcome people in the stadiums and help them reach their position with golf carts, wheelchairs…”, says Pablo Zanor, 38-year-old surveyor engineer, born in Zenón Pereyra, Santa Fe Province.

He wanted to come to the World Cup, but lacked the financial resources and found this avenue of entry through volunteering: “My expectations were low because we were told our role was fixed in one place and we couldn’t watch the games. When am I When I arrived I realized that it was very different because here I play my role and then I can watch the game. Also on our free days we can do whatever we want. We have free time to visit places.”

At his side, his companion in hand, Florencia Morere (38), a graduate in Communications, also from Santa Fe. “I have less football than Para Ti magazine, but I really like the folklore that is built around it of football. I took it as a new experience, working in a World Cup means living in a city that I would never otherwise have been able to visit, being in contact with people from all over the world and seeing the best players from all over the world”. experience.

He had a particular situation: “I had to work at stadium 974 in Argentina’s match against Poland and they put me in a corner where the players’ relatives were. I didn’t know anyone and I saw women with children. I helped them and assisted because it was part of my job and there was a good feeling, then I discovered that one was the wife of Paredes, the other of Dibu…”.

Out there, playing on the Play Station, and wearing the Boca shirt, is Marcos Perren, who took part in one of the editions of the television program Bake it out. “I had to be at the hotel, helping organize the transport of the buses that leave for the stadiums on match days,” he says that he had gone viral for cooking a Boca cake that didn’t turn out very well.

FIFA gives them over $2,000 worth of clothes: sneakers, socks, pants, t-shirts, jackets, divers, hats, bags and backpacks, and even a smartwatch.

All are satisfied and recommend to live this experience. “You meet many people from all cultures, you establish contacts and many doors open for you. This is very important. Most of those who are here have come by leaving their jobs, leaving everything and selling everything. Some have taken holidays and others They even continue to work remotely from here,” Guadalupe details.

And Pablo adds: “This makes you grow personally. I quit my job to come. As for the culture shock, I was expecting something more rigid, but it’s not like that. Qatari society has opened up a lot to tourism”.

Like them, there are dozens of Argentines and thousands of people from all over the world who, without earning a penny, work six to ten hours a day to make everything in Qatar 2022 work.

Being a woman in Qatar: pros and cons

There was a lot of talk ahead of this World Cup on how women would be treated in Qatar, taking into account Islamic culture and religion and the role assigned to women, so different from other customs. From clothing to behavior and treatment in public. When asked by clarionArgentine volunteers share their experiences in the more than 20 days they have lived in this country on the Arabian peninsula.

“Being a woman in Qatar has its pros and cons. On the subway they see you as a woman and they get up and give you a seat. During work shifts we have priority to enter, priority to go everywhere, priority to choose the place where our roles change in the workplace. The best position is always for women,” says Florencia Morere.

Guadalupe Camurati agrees and adds: “The question of clothing was put into our heads a lot, they told us we had to cover ourselves. But Later we got here and realized that it wasn’t like that, we could easily stand in skirt, showing knees, shoulders… No problem”.

But… “Then you have the B side. We are the last frozen Coca Cola in the desert. The men come very close to you and are very insistent. There have been situations on the subway that touch you… We try to get by in groups, for go with two or three women or in the company of a man they know. And distance themselves when they get very intense”, reveals Flor.

“They’re not used to seeing women bare or showing more skin than they should,” says Guada. And completes: “They look at you a lot and stare at you and it scares you a little. If they looked at me like that in Argentina I’d start screaming and run. Here I take it more normally because it happens to all of us. We’re not many women, there it’s a total of 30 percent female volunteers. They see us and we are like an object. Mind you, I’ve never felt limited by being a woman. I’m here as I am in Argentina.”

Florencia says that she happens to go on the subway and through the Airdrop of the phone they want to send her photos or videos: “They take selfies of you and send them to you saying they like you and they put the phone on you. We had a surprise with this ” . But she reveals a trick to get rid of the most annoying of her: “Let’s change the ring on our finger and say we’re married and it works”. Naturally, adultery is punished with severe penalties.

Al-Wakrah, Qatar. Special delivery.