8 - 14 February 2001
Issue No.520
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 8 - 14 February 2001 Issue No.520 |
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Why us?
Two months ago, Special Olympics International (SOI) chose Egypt as its headquarters for the Middle East and North Africa region, an honour bestowed upon the country and a huge responsibility placed on its shoulders. Senior SOI members in Egypt last week told the Weekly why Egypt was selected and why they have faith in their choice.
Thomas Songster, SOI senior vice president, says Egypt was chosen as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) headquarters "because it is politically stable. It is money-centred and we have people who are very active and interested in helping." Songster cited Ismail Osman, chairman of Special Olympics Egypt (SOE) and Magda Moussa, SOE vice president as men and women who have made a difference. "The great care and effort given by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak has made us certain that the MENA bureau will gain tremendously from her care and experience in this field."
Ayman Abdel-Wahab was selected as MENA's managing director following the progress made in Egypt which has seen the number of mentally disabled people playing sports jump to 15,000 from 1,700 in 1994 when SOE was founded. "Due to the success of the Egyptian programme, we thought that Abdel-Wahab was the right person to apply our work to the whole Middle East which has 25 programmes," said Songster. "He could give a hand to all these Third World countries and is capable of leading them forward. It was our hope that he will take the Egyptian success story to other countries which don't have the same experience."
That would include many countries beyond MENA's scope. "SOI realised almost two years ago that 170 million people around the world are mentally disabled," said Jeffrey Barlow, SOI director of human resources and professional development. "We found that we are very restricted inside the United States so we decided to open our doors to the whole world."
As a consequence, says Harry Abel, SOI vice president for Partnership Development, SOI decided to divide the world into six geographic regions: Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and Middle East and North Africa
"We started spreading our programmes to all countries through these regions," Abel said. "We set up a number of training courses and seminars to rehabilitate those interested in dealing with the mentally disabled and built an army of experienced, well-trained coaches able to start successful programmes in their regions."
Abel said SOI tried to start a programme in each country "but we thought it better to have a main office in each region to follow up on these programmes. In each office we have building blocks which constitute the infrastructure and allow the programme to grow in the areas of volunteers, sports, media, fund-raising and training."
On the social level, the programme provides health care for the mentally disabled and helps their families learn how to deal with their handicapped child. It also organised a number of seminars and programmes to encourage the disabled to interact better with society and become productive members. "This changed the outlook of people all around the world to the handicapped and helped them gain more self-confidence," Abel said.
Abdel-Wahab was thrilled to be chosen as MENA's managing director and for good reason. Twenty-five countries, including Turkey, are under the bureau's direct supervision. But his joy is tempered by a daunting task ahead. "Although these countries have 10 million mentally handicapped people, only 16,000 athletes -- 15,000 from Egypt -- are attached to the Special Olympics and practicing sports. That disturbing statistic, says Abdel-Wahab, means a huge effort must be made "to raise the number and attract other handicapped athletes to join in their countries' programmes."
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