JAMAICA Paralympic Association (JPA) President Christopher Samuda says a national sports policy for Para athletes is necessary for them to benefit from improved infrastructure in society, not just as it regards their respective sporting disciplines.

The association has hosted delegates from International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Americas Paralympic Committee on the island this week for discussions with various stakeholders about improving the welfare of Paralympic athletes and developing the Paralympic movement locally.

Samuda says JPA has been in discussions with the Government about improvement to the infrastructure for Para sports.

“What is our main interest is to customise a national sports policy dedicated exclusively for the Para athletes,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “This is not to say that we’re excluding any other group of persons but we feel that there should be a particular focus on the Paralympic movement — and a national sports policy would give that focus. Furthermore, the policy would entail principles and values of the Paralympic movement as well as practical infrastructural work that has to be done to educate the larger society as to the ideals and principles of the Paralympic movement, also to engage them in a real and meaningful way.”

But Samuda says promises of change are easy to deliver, and it is now time to see actual work done.

“What we need to do now is to go beyond the smiles and the handshakes in Jamaica,” he said. “We need to ensure that our Para athletes and persons who are ‘abled with a difference’ have access — not only to public places but access to education, access to public services — and they are not prejudiced by virtue of them just having what persons term to be disabilities. But we don’t term it in that way.”

In doing this, Samuda says society has to change how it reacts to these concerns.

“So, the vocabulary has to change, the narrative has to change, the understanding has to change. And, certainly, one of the movements we are doing this year is to ensure that through our I Am Phenomenal campaign we not only educate but we also bring, practically, people into the movement so that they can make a contribution,” he said. “We have a lot of persons out there who have knowledge of the movement and I’m sure that they would dedicate their energies to the movement and everything in the interest of the Para athletes — because without the Para athletes, we wouldn’t be here.”

IPC President Andrew Parsons shares Samuda’s concerns but says the level of development of the nation will impact how much Para sports can grow, and how much infrastructural improvement can take place.

“Take a look at the medal table in the Olympics and the Paralympics,” he told the Observer. “You’ll see the richest nations, they’re at the top. It’s difficult to overturn that trend but what we do is partner with different organisations, such as development banks, to try to bring, through Para sports, more resources to the nations to implement programmes and projects. They’re not traditional partners of sports organisations but that’s why we are not a traditional sports organisation. We do have an impact, a social impact; that’s why we try to bring different stakeholders to the mix so they can support and try to, in some way, bypass the challenges every developing nation already faces. This is, of course, challenge of security and so forth. Sport is usually a second thought but in the case of Paralympics, it shouldn’t be because what we’re talking about here is a huge return on investment in every dollar spent on Para sports. The return is on inclusion, the change in perception, bringing that 15 per cent of the population that is marginalised into society.”

Parsons says this is also a warning to the private sector because if this per cent of the population is not financially active, it is bad for the economy.

The I Am Phenomenal campaign is a project that will gain even more emphasis when National Paralympic Day is observed on March 11. Samuda says there are several plans already made for the celebration.