Última Hora
October 2, 2024
Luis Ramírez, Minister of Training and Tradition, Paraguay
César Ramírez, Minister of Sports activities, Paraguay
Claudia Echeverry, President and Director, Particular Olympics Latin America
Paraguay is enjoying a pivotal position within the discipline of inclusion within the area. As an indication of this dedication, from October 4 to 12, Asunción will host greater than 1,000 athletes from throughout the hemisphere to compete within the IV Latin American Particular Olympics Video games, sponsored by the state. It has been recognized for many years that sports activities are a robust device for social change; they foster group, promote inclusion, and empower athletes. Sports activities, together with training, are a elementary device for improvement, particularly for individuals with mental and developmental disabilities. As we strategy the Latin American Regional Video games, it’s alternative to replicate on the important significance of each.
Within the area, individuals with mental disabilities face obstacles in acquiring a good and equitable training. In Latin America and the Caribbean, solely 16% of nations have inclusive training legal guidelines, whereas 42% nonetheless promote segregation.
Paraguay is on the forefront with the Unified Faculties (US) and Unified Champion Faculties (UCS) applications. Supported by Particular Olympics—a world motion that seeks to finish discrimination in opposition to individuals with mental and developmental disabilities—these facilities provide alternatives for younger individuals, each with and with out mental disabilities, to study from one another and construct friendships that transcend variations via sports activities competitions, golf equipment, and actions involving your entire faculty group.
In April 2024, Paraguay turned the primary South American nation to affix the Particular Olympics World Management Coalition for Inclusion, committing to making sure inclusive instructional areas and coaching lecturers on the topic. This dedication relies on the success of the “Open Faculties” program, which gives sports activities and cultural actions to 11,000 college students in 150 faculties on weekends, selling equal instructional alternatives. Paraguay goals to increase this program to 200 faculties this 12 months, with even higher growth plans for the long run.
One of the crucial notable examples is in Chaco, the place the “Open Faculties” program has launched actions akin to music courses, which had been beforehand inaccessible to college students in resource-limited communities. It’s in our native communities the place perceptions start to alter and the place the transformation in direction of actual inclusion happens.
Faculties are additionally elementary facilities for selling inclusive sports activities akin to bodily training and sports activities golf equipment, which strengthen inclusion and enrich the educational setting. Whereas they are often underestimated, sports activities are a robust instructional device that promotes inclusion and modifications attitudes.
Thus, the nation is working collaboratively from the Ministries of Training and Sports activities with a shared imaginative and prescient of inclusion, each within the classroom and on the enjoying discipline. That is unprecedented. And this collaboration between ministries and Particular Olympics has demonstrated the worth of sports activities as a driver of change in our academic system, making Paraguay a mannequin of inclusion with a world influence. We’re constructing a social infrastructure that fosters actually inclusive attitudes, as we all know that creating inclusive instructional techniques is usually cost-effective and solely requires minimal changes to accommodate all college students, in line with UNESCO.
We’re proud that Latin America is a middle of inclusion the place change occurs every day, and much more in order that Paraguay performs a central position on this motion in direction of a extra inclusive society, acknowledged globally.
We invite you to help and be a part of the Latin American Video games in Asunción, to witness the ability and potential of inclusive sports activities and training represented by the Particular Olympics athletes. You’ll witness inclusion firsthand.
