Acting Australian High Commissioner Promotes Sports for People with a Disability
 

13 May 2010
Australia’s Acting High Commissioner in Fiji, Ms Sarah Roberts, opened a Fiji Paralaympic Committee Train-the-Trainers Workshop in Suva today when she served the first ball in a modified game of table tennis.
Backed by a supportive audience of teachers and sports officials at the National Centre for People with Disabilities, Ms Roberts also tried her hand at a modified game of table-top cricket where she faced some stiff, but friendly, competition from one of the participants at the workshop.
Organised by the Fiji Paralympic Committee, the two-day workshop aims to equip teachers with the skills to deliver relevant sports activities for students with special needs.
Mr Ken Black of the Australian Sports Commission is providing skills training at the workshop which will see the introduction in Fiji of modified table-top cricket and table tennis games for people with special needs.
Mr Black will also meet with officials of Fiji Cricket and the Fiji Table Tennis Association to facilitate inclusion of the modified versions of the two sports in their national programs as a way to encourage participation by people with a disability.
Addressing workshop participants Ms Roberts said disability was an issue which knows no boundaries and there was a need for strategies to be built on solid partnerships, effective resource sharing and a collective vision to deliver quality services for people living with a disability.
“The Fiji Paralympics Committee and the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) have worked together since 2005 to provide inclusive sport activities for children with a disability in the 17 Special Education Centres around the country,” Ms Roberts said.
“Sport plays an important role in building bridges, changing communities and peoples’ attitudes towards those of us with disabilities,” she said. “Sport is also a vehicle through which broad development objectives can be achieved.
“Recognising the important role sport plays in development, Australia is supporting the Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) which focuses on developing community-based sports in Fiji and the Pacific countries and this has helped increase participation by people with a disability in inclusive sports,” Ms Roberts said.

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and the Fiji Paralympic Committee (FPC) have a five-year partnership agreement which will focus on sports to improve the lives of people with special needs.

With A$350,000 provided under the Australian Sports Outreach Program, the partnership involves the ASC managing the project in conjunction with the FPC. Funding has been used to:
1. Employ and professionally train two Sport Development Officers
2. Provide regular teacher training
3. Provide sports equipment
4. Allow for regular school visits from staff to monitor activities
5. Cater for communications materials.

The ASC-FPC partnership has also seen the introduction of the Matua Sports Program which is a grassroots level program that provides regular participation in a variety of sports for children with special needs in Fiji’s 17 Special Education Centres.

**ENDS**