Progress for Disabled Sport in the African Region

In spite of the many challenges that hinder the development of sports activities for people with disabilities, some progress has been achieved in the IPC African Region. Greater awareness of directing authorities on disability sport issues and an overall increase in the interest shown by persons with disabilities, teachers, doctors and parents to disability sport are examples of this progress. As a result of these social developments many federations and National Paralympic Committees were born during 1999, e.g. in Niger, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Lesotho. Others nations, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, endowed themselves with new disabled sport managers and administrators.

These newly developed structures have created the need for greater regional cooperation in the planning and facilitation of sport competitions. In 1999, several regional planning meetings took place in Cameroon, Mauritania, South Africa, Algeria and Tunisia.

Several sport events were also held in the Region, examples include:

• The All Africa Games in Johannesburg (South Africa) took place during September 9 - 19. Nineteen events for athletes with disabilities were integrated into the Games. The Higher Council of Sports in Africa (CSSA) was extremely instrumental with their support of the initiative; it marked the first time in history that such a large number of Paralympic events was integrated in the able-bodied Games.
• Wheelchair Basketball Tournament for Africa and the Middle East held in Algir during November 20 -26 in which seven countries participated: Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and South Africa. The Egyptian team qualified for the Paralympic Games in Sydney.

Additionally, workshops and vocational training were organized with the generous contributions from the IPC, FFH, IBSA, WBIF and TopTeam.

Major events on the African Regional Calendar include:

• Sitting Volleyball: Tripoli (Libya), January 14-21 2000
• Powerlifting: Bengazi (Libya), March 8-16 2000
• General Assembly of the African Confederation of Sports for Disabled: Cairo (Egypt) March 28 - April 2 2000
• Athletics Championships for Africa and the Middle East: Tunis (Tunisia), June 25-30 2000

Harzallah Ali
IPC African Regional Representative

The Paralympic American Region Holds its First Panamerican Games

In November 1999, the dream of the First Paralympic Panamerican Games became reality, when more than 1,000 sports persons from 19 countries competed in Mexico City. On the program were Athletics, Swimming, Table Tennis and Wheelchair Basketball for all disability groups.

The Games were without question a high level competition with the opportunity for athletes to classify for the upcoming Paralympic Games in Sydney and to collect points for ranking systems. For many athletes, this was the first chance to participate in an international competition.

Apart from the sports events, a variety of seminars, workshops and meetings took place during the Games, focusing on topics like the coordination of the regional calendar, improved communications, classification etc.

The president of the Panamerican Sports Organization (ODEPA), Mr. Mario Vazquez Rana, announced at the Games that a motion will be presented to the next ODEPA assembly to approve the incorporation of the Para Panamerican Games into the able-bodied Panamerican Games, thus even extending the model of the Paralympics, which always take place in the same host city as the Olympic Games.

We would like to thank the Mexican Organizing Committee, especially Prof. Takashi Matzumura and the Mexican Paralympic Committee as well as Mrs. Georgina Grijalva, who together with hundreds of Mexican judges, doctors, professors and volunteers worked very hard to make the Games a great success. To all of them: Thank you for your effort and cooperation given to the Region.

José Luis Campo
President, IPC American Region