Wasla Team Organizing the Sports Bring Us Together Tournament for PWDs
Wasla Team organized Sports Bring Us Together league which combines a goal ball match for persons with visual disabilities with a sitting volleyball match for persons with physical disabilities. The event took place on the end of the second week of March, at the Rafah Services Club, as part of the activities of SportsBringUsTogether campaign, launched recently by Wasla Center.
The league was organized in cooperation with the Palestinian Paralympic Committee for the Sport of Persons with Disabilities and the Rafah Services Club, with the aim of strengthening the sports role of persons with disabilities and activating the practice of various kinds of sports for them.
For his part, Kamel Abu al-Hassan said, “The nature of the cooperation was to count and assemble sports teams and players present for the goal-ball and sitting volley-ball teams sitting from the Palestinian national team players and other club players, and coordinate with the club on which the league is located.
Abu Al-Hassan also explained that this league shed more light on the sports of Persons with disabilities which are ineffective and neglected in sports clubs. He indicated that there is still an important need to facilitate the accessibility of persons with disabilities to sports facilities and empower them to practice different types of sports.
The atmosphere of the Goal Ball Match
The match started with the participation of 10 persons with visual disabilities on the Goal Ball Match. A great atmosphere of silence prevailed, as one of the conditions of this game, in which players depend mainly on the sense of hearing and the skill of concentration.
Khaled Al-Najjar expressed his participation in the game, saying: “From a long time I was waiting like such matches, which is our first match of almost two years, the sports bring us together league brought us back to the atmosphere of games which we missed recently. Although our number as PWDs has increased, there is no particular interest in our sport by clubs and stakeholders.” The match ended with four points for Huriya team against 1 point for Karama Team.
The atmosphere of sitting Volleyball Match
As for the second round of Sports Gathers Us, 18 players with physical disabilities joined the sitting volley-ball game. They were divided equally to six main players and 4 reserve players for each team, namely AlQuds and Jenin. The playground area’s bounds were defined to be smaller than the playground specified for persons without disabilities. This is because the game depends on the players movements while sitting on the playground floor completely while removing lower prosthetic limbs.
The match ended with the score of 25 points for Jenin team against 15 points for AlQuds team. Therefore, Jenin Team was announced as the winner against AlQuds Team.
Abdullah Tabasi, a representative of alAmal Assosiation for Rehanilitation, expressed his participation, saying “My participation comes as a member of Sports Brings Us Together Campaign, seeking to shed more light in the reality of persons with disabilities to advocate their rights in general and their right to sports in particular. This comes through the adaptation of sports clubs in the Gaza Strip, specially in Rafah”.
Wasla Team concluded the league by crowning the winner teams with cups and honoring the players and the referees with gold medals and thanking them for their participation in the league. The league’s experience in the Gaza Strip should be extensively replicated to enhance the participation of players with disabilities in national and international forums.