KIGOMA: Tanzania has successfully launched the Global Week of Inclusion (GWI) with a strong message to integrate intellectual disabled persons in all aspects of life such as sports, education and other development activities.
To amicably celebrate this week, Special Olympics Tanzania (SOT) has joined the rest of the world to commemorate the power of inclusion and series of sporting activities are set to be held across the country.
GWI has officially kicked off today, July 20 to July 26 and people are being encouraged to put on red attire on any day of their choice as part of amplifying the inclusion message around the globe.
In Tanzania, special red t-shirts have been made to celebrate GWI with printed message of ‘We Stand Together for Inclusion’ visibly seen on the chest part.
At Kasulu District in Kigoma Region, SOT organised two fruitful inclusion sporting events featuring a five-a-side football contest as well as a marathon both being done to show the public that people with intellectual disabilities can easily be engaged.
The interesting and competitive match was between Kasulu Mji versus Buhigwe which ended 2-1 in favor of Kasulu Mji who scored late in the second half to walk away with the hard-fought victory.
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These two inclusive sporting activities demonstrated the power of inclusion…each athlete played a fair game and they were always obedient to instructions from their coaches.
Mussa Isaka, one of the intellectual disabled athlete opened up that he prefers to play football as well as engage in dancing in order to stay health and keep him close to the public.
“I like football very much…I play as a midfielder and my favorite football club in the country is Simba while abroad, I support Arsenal…also, I like music and dancing,” said Isaka smilingly.
On her part, Mary Richard who is also an intellectual disabled person opened up that she likes music and dancing a lot.
She also used the opportunity to urge parents and guardians of intellectual disabled persons not to lock them in the houses but rather, they should create an enabling environment for them to go outside to play and socialize with their colleagues.
Indeed, Mary’s dancing skills were seen during a special moment when they were inclusively allowed to dance…the dancing floor was dusty hence another indicator that people with intellectual disabilities like entertainment.
For Idrisa Peter, who is a unified partner, revealed that he is always happy to play with intellectual disabled persons saying they make him proud as they are so friendly.
“They have real love…they are very cooperative and we play together many times. They like sports as well as dancing that is why whenever a song is played, they dance without feeling shy,” he said.
Moreover, he urged people to always give them an opportunity to socialize and treat them with equality and dignity since they are capable to contribute positively to the society.
Meanwhile, Special Olympics uses the month of July to honor Eunice Kennedy Shriver who founded the organization with the inaugural International Games on July 20, 1968 in Chicago, USA.