First Disabled Games opens in Accra

Accra, April 10, GNA - The passage of the Disability Bill would make provision for adequate inputs for the disabled to take part in sporting activities to ensure a balanced sports development in the country, Prince Ernest Oduro-Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of the National Sports Council (NSC) said on Monday.

He said despite the achievements of the physically disabled in sports, the NSC and the Ministry of Education and Sports are concerned about some of the challenges confronting the physically challenged in sports and was prepared to assist them with funding, logistics and the needed infrastructure to make them participate actively in sports. Prince Oduro-Mensah said this at the opening of the maiden Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled Sports in Accra.

The five-day Games which is being sponsored by the Sports Organization of the Disabled in Denmark, has amputee soccer, wheel chair table tennis, wheel chair Basketball and theory lessons as some of the main events.

He praised the Disabled Sports Association of Ghana for participating in several international competitions where they raised the flag of Ghana high in to demonstrate their nationalism and patriotism.

The Chief Executive appealed to the Association to intensify its plans to reach out to other disabled persons, especially those in the streets to join the crusade to demonstrate that disability is not inability.

Mr Luis Miller, Second Vice President of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled called on all to help the Association to represent Ghana in the Paralympic Games scheduled for China in 2008. Mr Jen Boe Nielson, Director of the Sports Organization of the Disabled in Denmark said there was the need for the disabled to also have some fun and engage in sporting activities, hence the organisation's assistance.

He said sports forms part of improving life for the individual athletes, since it not only creates fun but also draws the attention of the society that people with disability are capable of contributing their quota towards national development.