Special Olympic programme will soon include football

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

Eight regional delegates will be among those from around the world who will converge on Morocco on June 6 for the five-day Special Olympics Global Congress.

One of the things at the top of their agenda, according to Caribbean board chairperson Maureen Webber, is the introduction of football into the Special Olympic programme.

"Our biggest push is football across the entire region," Webber said on Thursday. "We are pushing football as the sport we want to have in all of our programmes because we have been giving the opportunity to even our lower-functioning athletes to participate in a team sports event.

"So much so that Special Olympics Jamaica will be having their national football competition in November, here in Kingston. We will be pushing to bring other programmes, to make it like an invitational instead of a one-country event," she added.

Revitalisation

The regional Special Olympic programme will also be focusing on the revitalisation of the Haiti programme.

"Right now, we are having a big push for Special Olympic Haiti to build back their programme, so we are currently raising funds and we plan to have some training camps in Haiti in July and August."

The Special Olympic Global Congress is held every five years and is aimed at bringing together all the leaders in the programme from across the world to plan the way forward. This year's programme will be somewhat different, as efforts are being made to involve more persons who work in the field.

"What is different this time around is the process, as they have involved us on the ground much more," said Webber. "We spent almost 12 months in 'webinars' and smaller meetings discussing the elements that we think are important to ensure that we have even more and more persons with ideas involved in the Special Olympics in each of our individual programmes," she added.

The 2010 Global Congress, which is being supported under the patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco, will honour late founder Eunice Kennedy Shiver.

Shiver will be honoured as the Special Olympic leadership makes an even bolder movement in support of the mission to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, as well as building communities of acceptance and inclusion throughout the world.