The Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA) has received the prestigious, international Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Rotary Club of St Andrew North for its outstanding and sustained work with disabled athletes, who have won medals at Paralympic Games over the years.

At a recent meeting of the club, Christopher Samuda, president of the JPA, accepted the award in the presence of Suzanne Harris-Henry, general secretary of JPA, and Dr Rory Dixon, director of the JPA.

Samuda, who is also president of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), identified both the JPA and JOA as instruments of change and transformation in sport.

“I am cognisant of the revealing fact that we must bring to sport — the game of life — change…real change that will lead to transformation,” he noted.

Samuda said the process of change must involve stakeholder education and stakeholder consensus and activation.

“It must involve informed and decision-making processes across the board…integrity of thought, transparency in action, accountability, and the implementation of a viable, national strategic and business plan,” he noted.

Samuda added that sports ethics and sport governance are ways to ensure that the right people are in the right jobs, while sport theology is a way to ensure that the right people understand and embrace the right way of doing what is right.

“We who are engaged in the business of sport must bring to the business a humanity, a social conscience, a civic understanding, a community spirit and a national commitment to use sport to create a new dawn,” Samuda said.