Nowruz in Numbers

An overview of our club, projects, social impact and online reach.

Stichting Nowruz · SC Nowruz

A name that means new day.

Nowruz began as a belief — that the places the world ignores are often the ones with the most to say. We started with a camera, a football, and a group of people who refused to look away. What grew from that is something we could not have planned. A foundation. A club. A community. Rooted in Apeldoorn, reaching across twelve countries and counting.

Where it started
Foundation
Stichting Nowruz
Born out of a simple conviction: that every community deserves to have its story told. We travel to places that rarely make headlines — and we listen before we film. That is how every project begins.
Founded · 2021
2021
Football Club
SC Nowruz
Started with a pitch, a handful of players, and no idea how fast it would grow. Two years later, SC Nowruz is the largest indoor football club in Gelderland — a home for everyone who walks through the door.
Founded · April 2023
2023
Recognition
The largest indoor football club in Gelderland
We did not set out to be the biggest. We set out to be the most open. As it turns out, when a club truly welcomes everyone, people come. 207 members. 20 teams. 17 men's, 3 women's — all competing in the official KNVB futsal leagues. Founded April 2023. Still growing.
In numbers
207
Members across 20 teams
12
Countries we have worked in
4+
Years since Nowruz was born
12 countries. One thread.

From the streets of Medellín to the islands of Maluku. From the hills of Bosnia to the skate parks of Gaza. Every place we have been has left something in us — and we hope we have left something there too.

Iran, Iraq and Guernsey are not yet featured on this website as projects.

How it unfolded
2021
Stichting Nowruz is founded
The name comes from Persian — Nowruz, new day. It was chosen because that is what we wanted to offer: a new beginning. Not just for ourselves, but for every community we would one day walk into. The foundation starts small, with big eyes and no blueprint.
Stichting Nowruz Film Community
2021–22
The first journeys begin
Before there was a website, before there were team photos — there were just people and places. Iran, Iraq, Guernsey, Bosnia. We went, we listened, we stayed longer than planned. That became our way of working.
Iran Iraq Guernsey Bosnia
Apr 2023
SC Nowruz is born in Apeldoorn
The club begins with one team and a borrowed pitch. The idea is simple: a place where the door is always open, whatever your name, wherever you are from. The KNVB registers it. The city notices it. People keep coming.
SC Nowruz KNVB futsal Apeldoorn
2023–24
The world gets wider
The club reaches 200 members. The foundation travels to Morocco, Togo, Maluku and Colombia. The film Salam Sarane premieres at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam — 300 people in one room, breathing in a story from the other side of the world. De Volkskrant and Het Parool write about it.
200+ members Salam Sarane de Volkskrant Het Parool
2025–Now
The largest indoor football club in Gelderland
We did not chase the title. It found us. SC Nowruz is now the largest futsal club in the province of Gelderland — 20 teams, 207 members, still growing. And the foundation keeps moving: new projects, new places, the same belief that brought us here in the first place.
#1 in Gelderland 20 teams 12 countries
As seen in

The stories we tell travel further than we do.

Online reach

Every week, half a million people come across our story. We did not buy that reach — we earned it, one post, one film, one match at a time.

500K
People reached every month through Instagram alone.