18 May, 2021 New Delhi: Special Olympics Bharat celebrated World Family Day by lauding the families of athletes with intellectual disabilities and launching ‘Family Café’ – a self-run, support platform enabling families to connect and help each other in an engaging and meaningful way. ‘Family Café’ will bring together families of Special Athletes to share their respective journeys, challenges, rejections and victories, in order to educate and support each other through their unique and shared experiences. The first session of the Family Café kicked off on World Family Day on 16 May 2021, with subsequent sessions to be conducted monthly, hosted by the families themselves and discussing a wide range of relevant topics.
Commenting on the platform, one participating parent said, “Being parents of Special children, there are issues that we are not able to speak about within our immediate families also. A group like this can be a good support”
The special “World Family Day” weekend continued with a session conducted by the Special Olympics Bharat Youth Leaders. With an attendance of more than 90 people, the session brought together the special athletes, their family members and volunteers. It opened with how the athletes felt happy being part of the Special Olympics Global family and later witnessed interactive discussions through break out rooms and inclusive activities that demonstrated glimpses of a Unified generation.
‘Special Olympics makes me happy and fit’, expressed by Sahil Singh, an Athlete leader from Lucknow, UP, who is a person with Down Syndrome.
The event was a part of the largest initiatives for inclusion in education for young people with and without intellectual disabilities – made possible by a collaboration between the Special Olympics International and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces.
Speaking about inclusion, Dr Amitav Mishra General Secretary of SO Bharat said, “These sessions show signs of an enormous platform developing that will help us help ourselves and each other and learn from each other. Coming together as one big family we have the greatest power to create an impact in our lives as well as in the society”
