01 Dec 2013

The deputy director for sports and recreation in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Moreetsi Mogotsi says sport is good for character building, discipline and teamwork. 

Officiating at the special Olympics; Botswana National Games in Francistown recently, Mogotsi said those traits were important in personal development as well as nation building.

He noted that discipline and team work were key to any nation’s success in uniting its people and eliminating some social ills that might contribute to instability in the country.

He stated that government acknowledged the role that sport played in the development of young people in the country and it was for that reason that Batswana were afforded an opportunity to participate in any sport of their choice.

Special Olympics Botswana, he highlighted, has held national games annually since 1991 being a culmination of regional competitions where a total of over 2 000 athletes with special needs participated in the competitions.

The games, he said, were aimed at raising awareness on the needs of people living with disability because often they faced barriers created by perceptions and discrimination in many societies.

As a result of stigma associated with disability, he noted that people living with disability were generally excluded from education, employment and community life which deprived them of opportunities essential to their social development, health and wellbeing.

Furthermore, the deputy director pointed out that such games as the Special Olympics could help in the reduction of stigma and discrimination associated with disability because it could transform community attitudes about people living with disability by highlighting their skills in the process reduce the tendency to see the disability instead of the person.

And at the same time, he stated that through sports, people without disability could interact with those with disability in a positive context thus influencing the communities to reshape assumptions and negative perceptions about what they could and could not do. 

In addition, he said the general principles of the United Nations Convention on people living with disability included the right to full effective participation and inclusion in society by people with disability.

Thus, he said through Special Olympics, Botswana managed to implement programmes and activities that support such principles. Ends