Support athletes with special needs in Pakistan

As the COVID situation remained uncertain in the first quarter of 2021, Special Olympics Pakistan's Coaches kicked off regular Cycling engagement for Athletes with intellectual disability in an open and safe public space.

Our team organized weekly Cycling training for four months followed by a Cycling Competition in March with the help of coaches and volunteers.

The cycling activity provided our Athletes with an opportunity to not only develop their riding skills but also enhance their exposure to the mainstream community.

We are thankful to the donors for supporting sporting activities for the children and adults with intellectual disabilities throughout the last year.

We look forward to commencing a Cycling Development Camp for female children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the coming months.

Links:

• Special Olympics Pakistan Cycling Competition

We continued with our home-based/ virtual sports training for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

With no On-Field sports activities, this quarantine hasn't been easy. But thanks to our coaches, parents, and siblings for bringing unique ways for our Athletes to stay connected to their sports.

Using only the virtual modes of communication, our coaches and siblings helped the athletes to keep on their training at homes and getting better in their sport.

We also held a virtual Football Skills Challenge in which athletes with intellectual disabilities from all over the country demonstrated their footballing talent. 

We plan to continue developing our home training model which allows us to reach as many athletes with intellectual disabilities as possible especially those located in the far-flung areas of Pakistan.

Links:

• Virtual Football Skills Challenge

Although the second quarter of the year saw a lot of challenges due to the COVID-19 chaos, our dedicated staff and coaches worked together to find ways and tools to digitize Special Olympics Pakistan's Sports program as much as possible. 

Thanks to the mainstreaming of virtual modes of communication, we were able to conduct training of coaches and also develop educational resources for them, as it was planned. The coaches can use these resources not only during the pandemic for online training of our special needs athletes but also once the situation gets better and the training resumes on the pitch. 

We have also started a flexible home-based training program for athletes to make sure that their progress in sports doesn't reverse and they stay fit and active during their stay at homes. The sports in which we have started home-based training in individual skills are Basketball, Athletics, and Fitness. Our expert coaches have also trained and guided parents and siblings as part of the home-based training program so they can effectively play their roles as a home coach to their children.

We are making sure our special needs athletes get the necessary minimum equipment to better their sports skills under the instructions provided by their coach and are following a healthy diet plan under the supervision of their parents and caretakers. We are very hopeful that the home-based training program will help these athletes to come all geared up and fit once they would return to the field.