KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, has committed to facilitating support of up to US$300,000 to benefit special athletes over the next four years.

Portfolio Minister Olivia Grange, made the announcement on Wednesday, during the symbolic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ministry and Special Olympics Jamaica in support of the Special Olympics Global Leadership Coalition for Inclusion.

The signing took place at the Ministry’s offices at 4-6 Trafalgar Road, New Kingston. The agreement arising from the MOU will be signed at a later date.

The coalition is a global multilateral effort aimed at increasing inclusive sports and educational opportunities.

Under the MOU, there will be increased collaboration between the Ministry and Special Olympics Jamaica to improve the lives of individuals with and without intellectual disabilities using inclusive education through sports.

“Over the next four years, we commit to facilitating support for the work of the coalition through cash and kind, through the facilitation of partnerships with the private sector, development partners and multilateral partners, up to US$300,000,” Minister Grange said.

She noted that the commitment will include “being an advocate for the coalition and providing opportunities for the Special Olympics movement to have a platform for wide engagement.”

Launched by the Special Olympics in June 2023, the coalition involves the coming together of governments, industry, philanthropists and the development community with a shared mission to support people with intellectual disabilities.

Members have committed to expanding inclusive sports and education to over 2,000,000 young people in more than 150,000 schools, and scaling Special Olympics programming to 180 nations, over the next three years.

Grange said that the Ministry will continue to support sports programmes for students of all abilities.

She said it is imperative that all Jamaicans, regardless of abilities “are able to freely access and participate in sports and physical activities.”

“Using sports to achieve non-sport outcomes is not new and in Jamaica this has been done for many years. So, supporting the Special Olympics Global Leadership Coalition is… a logical next step, following the implementation of the Unified Champion School Initiative in 11 schools, as part of a pilot programme in 2021,” she pointed out.

The minister commended the students and schools that have been participating in the Unified Champions Schools Initiative and encouraged other institutions to get on board.

President of Special Olympics Europe, David Evangelista, who spoke on behalf of Special Olympics Jamaica, said that Jamaica has committed to ensuring that sports will be made available to all children of all abilities through ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006.

He noted that under the Coalition, 100 schools in the country will have inclusive sports for children of all abilities “embedded into their academic journey.”

“No longer will sports for children with special needs be a nice thing to do…it will be a part of their learning experience. Teachers will be trained to not only provide lessons such as social studies, mathematics, algebra, engineering and science but also inclusion,” he noted.

Evangelista said the media has a role to play in the coalition and urged them to support the work of schools.

“Schools make for wonderful places for storytelling. You are openly invited to all of the schools across this nation to cover our unified platform,” he said.

Others in attendance at the signing of the MoU were Head of Governance for Special Olympics International, Shawn Ferguson; Head of Special Olympics North America, Greg Epperson; and Chairman of the Global Athlete programme, David Duncan.

-JIS