Edutain+ is a sports programme for disabled young adults (11-16 years old) living or going to school in the borough of Westminster. Despite the ongoing pandemic, the program continued this summer, however numbers did dwindle this summer as it ‘has made most parents apprehensive’ says the director of the programme. This is to be expected, especially since most of the children would have been very vulnerable, and parents are all ‘looking for reassurances that their children are and will be safe’.
With a group of around 8-12 people, the games that the children can play are not all that limited. Of course some adaptations have to be made, such as when playing football, there are ball bearings inside the ball so blind people can hear it. Games that these kids sometimes play are: football, basketball, boccia, table cricket, polybat, and athletics. The programme usually runs in the summer for 4 weeks, one week at a time, and if they have enough funding, it also runs in April.
Sports are a an important aspect of everyone’s lives. It helps maintain health, improves coordination and strength, creates role models for young children and can just be used as a distraction tool. It is also an important part of life for those with disabilities as it is something they, and probably everyone else, probably thought they could never do,and now they have a chance to finally fit in, feel like they are part of something. Of course, the participation of disabled athletes in major sporting events isn’t entirely new, with the Paralympic Games being held for the first time in 1960, 64 years after the original Olympic Games. 209 disabled athletes took part, with that number jumping to 4400 for next year’s Paralympics. With technology advancing, I hope that we can find a way for passionate athletes to not have to worry about not being able to perform if they seriously injure themselves, but for now we have small camps like these for inclusion and sports development.
