Australian Gov’t commended for supporting disability sports in Upper East

Story& Pix: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga The Australian Government has been commended for supporting Persons With Disability(PWDs) in the Upper East Region with assorted sports equipments, capacity building programmes and creating an enabling environment for the promotion of our sports among PWDS. Under a programme dubbed “We Know Sports, PWDs In Active Sports”, the Australian Government through funding by AUSAID has significantly contributed to develop and promote disability sports, disability rights and inclusive development in the region. They have also held a series of capacity building workshops on sports planning and management, advocacy, publicity for PWD sports and also provided a number of sports equipment including twelve (12) sports wheel chairs, four Javelins, three and three discus to PWDS. This has led to the organization of the first ever inter-regional disability sports competition was successfully organized between the Northern Region and the Upper East Region to challenge the unfortunate and wrong perception that, sports is the preserve of the able-bodied. Mr. Awal Ahmed, Project Manager of Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment (RISE) Ghana, an NGO working to champion the cause of PWDs made the commendation at Bolgatanga during a duty tour of the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. William Billy Williams. Mr. Ahmed while expressing appreciation to the Australian Government for funding the noble initiative urged the High Commission and the AUSAID team to continue to support and entrust them with resources to put more smiles on the faces of more women, children and the deprived. For his part, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. William Billy Williams pledged to deepen the relationship of disable sports between his country and Ghana based on the biggest reputation of sports in Australia. He said Australia is committed to providing the same opportunity to everybody no matter where the individual comes from by providing the disabled in the Upper East Region with sports equipments. The High Commissioner commended RISE Ghana for their efforts at promoting inclusive society and called on Persons with Disabilities to use their skills to contribute to the betterment of the society. According to him, Australian High Commission is providing funds in small grants to communities in Ghana and countries in the sub-region in sectors such as water and sanitation, renewable energy, education and agriculture, adding that these projects demonstrate Australia’s on-going commitment to deepening engagement with Ghana and across a full spectrum of issues including strengthened diplomatic links, increased development assistance, trade and commercial activity and greater people-to-people links. The Upper East Regional Sports Development Officer, Ewuntomah Iddrisu pledged to make good use of the sports equipments and called for more assistance from the Australian High Commission.