JPA set 12-month time frame for parishes to establish Para sports federations

also the number of sports that Jamaica would take part in at the Paralympics and other regional and global Para Sports Championships would be increased.

“Our constitution calls for the establishment of federations, so what we are doing now is broadening the constitution,” Samuda told the Jamaica Observer at Thursday’s launch of the St James Para Sports Federation, the first of its kind on the island.

“Each parish, when the federation is established, their presidents will of course be members of the Jamaica

Paralympic Association and there will be constitutional privileges and rights for each president, such as representation in the national body and voting rights,” he said.

In the same way that each parish has its own football association in which the presidents are members of the executive of the Jamaica Football Federation, Samuda said they are expecting to have federations all across the island. “We have said that by 2024 we must have a federation constituted with all parish presidents who will be eligible for executive positions in the umbrella organisation and other positions as well, and therefore what we are looking for is to the administrative competences, prowess and expertise in other parishes, to bring them into the frame so that we can get the best that will be serving the Paralympic movement.”

He said each parish already had a “constituted steering committee”, and that in the next months or so, “we can have another parish launching its federation and we are looking forward to the end of 2021 when all parishes have to be constituted”.

Having Para sports federations across the length and