Ghana for 2019 Special Olympics World Games
The National Director of Special Olympics Ghana, Ms Phyllis Biney, has announced that plans are underway to send athletes to participate in the 2019 Special Olympics World Games being hosted in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
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She said since 2014, a total of 8000 intellectually disabled people in Ghana had been offered special training to enhance their integration into society.
Besides, being offered special training to enable them participate in competitive sports such as football, athletics, volleyball and basketball, the intellectually disabled have also been introduced to the less popular floorball.
Ms Biney, who made the revelation at the inaugural ceremony of the reconstituted Board of Directors of Special Olympics Ghana said, over the past three years, the board had organised many programmes to create awareness that people with intellectual disabilities were also blessed with other potential which needed to be nurtured and developed to benefit society.
She said the intellectually disabled had also participated in Special Olympics World Games and competed favourably with their peers which had boosted their confidence and helped reduce the stigma attached to their predicament.
Ms Biney said through sports, some of the athletes participated in the 2015 Special Olympics World Games organised in Los Angeles in the United States of America where they won medals for Ghana.
“As part of our integration process, we have also been organising unified sports, where our athletes compete favourably with the able persons in society in various sports programmes, thereby boosting their confidence and reducing the stigma attached to their plight,” Ms Biney said.
She commended some corporate bodies such as Coca-Cola Ghana Limited, National Lotteries, Ecobank Ghana, Max International and Herbalife for their support to the intellectually disabled which enabled them to compete locally and internationally.
