Special Olympics Malawi last week conducted a three-day coaching course for coaches based in the Northern Region of Malawi.
Under the theme “building a unified generation”, Special Olympics Malawi has embarked on a journey to make sure that their athletes have equal opportunities in the society just like others.
Speaking to the media, National Director for Special Olympics Malawi Enid Mauluka said she believes that the northern chapter will be exemplary to others since they are the first ones to participate in this training.
Furthermore, Mauluka said that the project is there so that there should not be any discrimination against people with intellectual disability.
“This project is important because it will close the gap which was there between people with intellectual disability and their communities and we are lucky that we are one of the three countries benefiting so we started with a national stakeholders meeting where we sensitizing the whole country on what all this project is all about and the coaches you are seeing today are the people who are going to be involved with the unified champions schools and we have taken participants in all districts from the region,” said Mauluka.
Mauluka further said that they expect coaches who have been trained to implement what they have been trained in their respective schools so that will be the beginning of the campaign.
Northern Region Sports and recreation development officer at Malawi Council of Sports Grecian Mkandawire said that they are very grateful to Special Olympics Malawi for the training and expect all those who have been trained to implement what they been taught.
” I would like to thank the Special Olympics Malawi for conducting this training as this project is very important as it fits well in vision 2063 which talks about mindset change.
“Some people with intellectual disability are still being discriminated so it’s my plea to the coaches to go in their respective schools and communities and teach people what they have been taught and bring a mindset change in the community”. said Mkandawire.
Commenting on the successful training, one of the participants Lilian Lucas said that it was a great training and they will make sure what they have learnt shouls be put into use.
“We would like to ask for resources and equipments from well wishers so that we can be able to do our job perfect,” concluded Lucas.
The project which will end in 2024 is being sponsored by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed with a tune of 100 thousands dollars which is approximately 100 million Malawi Kwacha.
