Andrew Parsons attends I’mPOSSIBLE session in Japan

IPC President visited open lesson of the Agitos Foundation education programme 20 Oct 2017

Children from the Akasaka Elementary School pose for picture in a goalball court with representatives from the IPC, NPC Japan and Nippon Foundation

Andrew Parsons and Sir Philip Craven took part of the activities with the children

ⒸJapanese Paralympic Committee

By Agitos Foundation

An open lesson of the I’mPOSSIBLE education programme took place on Thursday (19 October) at the Akasaka Elementary School in Tokyo, Japan.

The activity was part of the fourth Project Review of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games completed this week (19-20 October). The IPC’s new President Andrew Parsons was present at the I’mPOSSIBLE session, together with former IPC President Sir Philip Craven.

After learning more about the Paralympic Movement and Paralympic sports in the classroom, around 55 children got to experience goalball in the court. They were joined by Parsons, together with the President of NPC Japan Mitsunori Torihara and the Executive Director of Nippon Foundation Paralympic Support Center Nao Ozawa. Sir Philip was in charge of the "Quiet Please" sign.

I’mPOSSIBLE is a toolkit of resources designed to engage young people between the ages of 6 and 12 years in the Paralympic Movement. Through education of inclusion and the Paralympic values, the programme aims to challenge and change the perceptions of how young people perceive people with an impairment.

On 3 December the Agitos Foundation will launch globally the education programme, which has been piloted by Armenia, Colombia and Japan. The Japanese pilot was the first to be launched in February in Tokyo, when a set of I’mPOSSIBLE education materials have been distributed to both public and private primary schools for free.