This article was published on Perspectives of The Himalayan Times in July 2017
Yesterday was the final
day of the Turkish Airlines ENGAGE Empowering League, the premier wheelchair
basketball event not only in Nepal but in the entire region.
It was a great success
overall and the focus of this piece is on the teams who have been participating
in the League, overall six male and four female teams.
There are many ways that
you as reader can help and support these amazing groups and surprisingly, most
of them are easily doable.
At the end of the day,
creating partnership is also about to start with small, doable actions that can
be later on scaled up, below some examples.
Sponsor
a Team
There are many ways to
support the teams. First of all, you should come to watch them in action and
you will be surprised how good they are. Turkish Airlines, the title sponsor of
the League has been extremely generous but also local corporates like Civil
Bank, Hero, D LifeStyle, IME Group are all financially supported the event.
The next logical step
would be to provide some financial support directly to the teams, not only to
make them more independent but also to acknowledge their efforts.
In Europe, where
wheelchair basketball is played professionally, some of the top teams have big
endorsement from the corporate sector. In the case of Briantea84, the Italian
Champion and finalist in the European Champion League, UnipolSai, one of the
biggest life insurances in the country, is the main sponsor together with a
multitude of other companies.
Not necessarily only a
corporate should help a team but also local shops can do their own part! After
all even 500 NRS or less can make the difference and can bring together the
entire neighborhood by cheering up your local wheelchair basketball team.
Host
a Team for training
Local schools can help a
lot by offering, for free of cost, the court so that the teams can easily train
during the entire year. This partnership is already happening as all but two
teams play in a court owned by a college. In some cases it has been very easy
to convince the management but in other cases, it has been extremely complex
and it should not be the case.
Host
an awareness program
As part of the League, we
have been visiting several schools to create awareness about disability and
social inclusion. This week we have been to the British School, last week we
visited Adarsha Kanya Niketan Secondary School in Mangalbazar and Tri Padma
Vidyasharmi School located in Pulchock.
In the course of the next
weeks, we are going to carry out more awareness.
All these awareness have
been supported by the Embassy of Switzerland as part of its involvement in the
League but actually such programs should be rolled out throughout the year, on
continuous basis.
Kids do not only learn
about social inclusion and disability, not only watch our champions play but
also have a firsthand opportunity to play on a wheelchair that is something
itself very educative and fun at the same time.
Schools and Colleges
should become bridge between their students and youths living with
disabilities.
With a bit of will,
thousands of students can have a mini service “practicum” in social inclusion
in just one hour and it is a life changing experience.
Thanks to the partnership
with the Duke of Edinburgh International Award, we are planning, in the days
ahead, to reach out more and more schools.
Play
wheelchair basketball
We just said that some
students, during our awareness programs, have been trying to play wheelchair
basketball. Some of them were very excited just at hearing about the idea of
seating on a wheelchair, other are scared.
Just to give you an idea,
you should know that in some European countries where wheelchair basketball is
played professionally like in Germany also able bodied persons can play, make
the sport truly inclusive.
Nicolai, the Coach of the
male German team and also coach of one of the strongest European clubs, the LSV
Lahn, has been playing himself wheelchair basketball for many years at the
highest levels.
Nicolai is not a
wheelchair user and he does not have any kind of disability. Before discovering
wheelchair basketball, he used to coach an able bodied team and he finds wheelchair
basketball much more fun than “traditional” basket.
Team
Building and leadership through wheelchair basketball
If you work in a
corporate sector, you can learn a lot of things by playing wheelchair
basketball. You can learn some key values of the games like sacrifice, team
building, grit, industriousness that can be easily re-adopted in your daily corporate
life. Coach Wooden, the most successful basketball coach in the American
college system, even wrote several books on the values of the game and their
daily application to enhance your leadership skills and make your work more
productive.
Team building sessions
can be easily arranged and guess who will be your coaches? None less than some
of the champions playing in the Turkish Airlines Empowering League!
Offer
an internship
Civil Bank, as part to
its commitment towards social inclusion, is soon to host a youth with
disability as intern. This person is going to have an incredible opportunity to
learn about banking and show how capable and reliable he is. There is no
internship program that automatically land you a job but it is still a great
opportunity for acquiring skills, gain confidence and build your profile, a win
win for a youths with disabilities without prior experience.Why not talking
with your HR department and explore this opportunity?
Exposure
Visits
You can easily invite one
of the teams or any other youths with disabilities to visit your headquarter
and have your managers sharing their experiences with them, explaining their
functions and roles and offering an overview of how your company works. This
will offer tremendous exposure and it does not require any budget and it can be
done in just 2 hours.
These are just simple
actionable ideas to make Nepal a more inclusive society. You can play a role
and make the difference only with a bit of goodwill and farsighted vision about
the future of this nation.
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