DISABILITY SPORTS WORKSHOPS FOR DISABLED PERSONS IN INDIA

Workshops on Wheelchair Basketball and Boccia being held in five locations in India this month

New Delhi, 7^th December 2014: The Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India, in collaboration with Choice International, the International Red Cross and other partners, is conducting workshops on Wheelchair Basketball and Boccia for disabled persons in five locations in India from 5^th-24^th December 2014.  

The workshops are free of cost and are being conducted by international coaches from around the world. Mr. Mark Walker from Australia, Mr. Jess from the USA, Mr. Mike from Nepal, Mr. Manoj Soma from the United Kingdom and Mr. Aram Voerman from the Netherlands are the international coaches involved in this initiative. Former Captain of the Indian National Basketball Team and Asian All-Star, Mr. Jayasankar Menon, is also extending his support to the initiative.

The workshops were inaugurated at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi on the 5^th of December 2014. The Chairman of the ISIC, Maj. HPS Ahluwalia was present at the inauguration and said, “While Wheelchair Basketball is one of the leading international paralympic sports, it is hardly played in our country. We need to promote the sport not only to create professional sportspersons but also for rehabilitating people with disability.”

The workshops aim to increase awareness on the positive impact of disability sports, specifically Wheelchair Basketball and Boccia, among disabled persons in India. The workshops specifically target the disabled persons, coaches, community leaders, referees, physiotherapists interested in disability sports. The organisers seek to use disability sports as a tool to promote equality and access to disabled persons and also, to develop and train disabled sportspersons to enable them to compete at national and international disability sports tournaments.

The workshops will cover various areas on Wheelchair Basketball such as the fundamentals (basic basketball skills with an introduction to the rules of the game), contact, stretching, basic chair skills, ball handling and passing.

The workshops will be rounded off by a mini-tournament in Chennai with the best wheelchair basketball players selected from the workshops competing against each other.

The schedule for the workshops and the tournament is provided in the attached flyer.