Gambia National Paralympic Committee - Sports for people with disabilities in rural Gambia
This project's parent organization is Gambia National Paralympic Committee
It operates in Gambia
It uses Adapted sports
Entered the Sport Federation or Governing Body of the Year
More about Gambia National Paralympic Committee - Sports for people with disabilities in rural Gambia
The Gambia National Paralympic Committee (GNPC) strives to promote sport for people with disabilities across the Gambia: there is a high level of stigma and discrimination attached to disability in the Gambia and sport can both change lives for the individuals participating and equally change attitudes within society through awareness-raising of disabled people’s potential. Gambia is one of the poorest countries in the world (ranked 151 out of 169 countries in the 2010 UN Human Development Index) and people with disabilities are even less likely to have access to education, health care and to have their own livelihoods than people without disabilities.
Many of the disabled in Gambia depend on begging and/or family to survive in the absence of state social support. GNPC identified a total lack of sports provision for disabled people in the rural areas of the Gambia. Much of the limited funding, resources and equipment remained in the Greater Banjul urban area, near the coast. This was almost entirely inaccessible for rural residents, given transportation costs and accessibility challenges. This initiative aimed high – wheelchair basketball, athletics and goalball would travel to the five up-country regions for disabled people to engage with for the first time.