Special athletes prepare for international competition
With the brief exception of Marion Jones, Belize has never made so much as a ripple in the international athletic spectacle known as the Olympics. But there is another global movement, every bit as important as its more famous namesake, in which Belizeans can and do excel. This morning I had the privilege to meet some of them.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
These are the young athletes who will be representing the country in the upcoming First Central American Games in Guatemala and the Special Olympics World Summer Games in China for students with disabilities.
Akintade Atkens, National Director, Special Olympics Committee of Belize
“We have been practicing tirelessly, most times three, four times in a week, and even sometimes two times a day. And like you must have known we just had like some week ago we just finished a summer camp which ran for about a week and a half. So the athletes are very much prepared for these games.”
Today the Special Olympics Committee of Belize officially unveiled the national uniforms that the children will be wearing at the sporting events.
According to Committee Director Akintade Atkens there are a total of five hundred registered special athletes in Belize. Of that number thirty-four of the children will participate in the regional and international games. But the trip would not have been made possible without donations from the Ministry of Education, businesses and individuals. Today those donors were awarded with certificates of appreciation.
Atkintade Atkens
“We are spending almost a hundred thousand already, that is for the two games. Because as you know, besides the athletes that will be going to the game, we have persons that will be going with them as chaperones, as maybe physiotherapists, as maybe our own doctors, you know, all this costs a lot of money. So when you put all this together it’s running— in cash we are spending about a hundred thousand plus.”
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“Every child, no matter what their place in life, no matter what their circumstances may be, every child in Belize deserves an opportunity to live a full and meaningful life. We have a long way to go in Belize, I am always the first to say that we have a long way to go in terms of providing the proper support for children and their families with special needs. I have instructed for example, the Solicitor General to do a comprehensive review of all the laws in Belize to make sure that in all our laws—and we have done some of it in the past, but we need to do more—that there is no provision in the laws of Belize that discriminates against a person living with a disability.”
The athletes who will be travelling to Shangai, China will depart from the country on September twenty-sixth of September and two days later, their colleagues who will be competing in Guatemala will embark on their journey.
Special guest at today’s presentation ceremony was Governor General Sir Colville Young.
