Let’s support the work of Special Olympics Jamaica
JAMAICA’S SPORTING prowess is known worldwide, and the work of sporting organisations is crucial to this success. Special Olympics Jamaica (SOJ), however, is more than a sporting organisation for most athletes with intellectual disabilities, as well as athletes without any disability, who join them for unified sports training and competition. The work of the SOJ and the Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA) must always be lauded.
SOJ, like its international governing body, seeks to use sport to break down any form of barriers that exclude people with intellectual disabilities from mainstream society. These intellectual disabilities can either be acquired or genetic, including Down’s Syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and traumatic brain injury. Some intellectual disabilities are not easy to identify and cannot be assessed by merely ‘looking on’, and so the sporting body depends on professionals to help with the classification process.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the UN in 2006 and was opened for signature in March 2007. Jamaica was among the first countries to sign on to the convention. This indicates a commitment to protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and to ensuring that they have the right to economic and social security as well as a decent standard of living. The convention also requires Jamaica to help persons with disabilities develop their capabilities to the maximum level, having them integrate into the society as far as possible. Sports is one such way to do this, and SOJ Executive Director Lorna Bell and her team are doing just that. Their work is crucial in several ways.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The SOJ arranges year-round training for athletes once a week on Saturdays at Independence Park Ltd. This prepares the athletes (both individual and unified) for competition on the world stage. The truth is that this single weekly session is short of what is needed but it is crucial as it creates a space for athletes to train with qualified coaches in various sporting disciplines such as bocce, skating, football, basketball, volleyball, swimming, and so on.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Importantly, this training exercise provides not just physical activity, but also an avenue for athletes to feel as part of a family. This is where those with disabilities get to socialise with others with similar challenges and skill levels. It also gives them a sense of belonging and inclusion, playing with athletes without disabilities in unified sports.
BREAKING DOWN OF BARRIERS
SOJ does a great job in helping to reduce the stigma attached to persons with disabilities. In fact, it uses sport as one of the main driving forces to show that persons with disabilities are no less ‘human’ and should command our respect both on and off the field.
CAPACITY BUILDING
There’s a genuine sense of gratitude and pride from athletes who train and participate for Jamaica at either the Special Olympics World Summer or Winter Games. These athletes get to see that internationally, there are more persons like them who are also having similar experiences. Representing your country gives that heightened sense of enthusiasm and patriotism, and Special Olympics Jamaica offers that avenue for athletes who would otherwise have thought that they would never get that chance on the global scale.
Jamaica has had several athletes participating and winning medals at the winter and summer Games. There were 43 participants for Athens 2011 and 69 at the 2015 Los Angeles Games. We are now looking to send nearly 100 athletes to the 2019 Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. The contingent will include three unified teams for the first time in our history.
Just this year, the Jamaica team placed second at the Special Olympics International’s Unified Cup football competition in Chicago. This is an amazing feat for SOJ in spite of struggles to get the funding needed to train and support these athletes. There needs to be a significant increase in the support SOJ gets from the Government and corporate Jamaica. The Digicel Foundation has been a longstanding partner and has been instrumental, along with others, in creating a training space with changing facilities for that SOJ, but overall, more needs to be done.
Hopefully, more persons will come out to volunteer their time and assist Special Olympics Jamaica as they look to make a significant impact in 2019 and beyond.