The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Tuesday visited the Special Olympics Pakistan training camp including Mahfooz Elahi president ICCI, Munawar Mughal chairman ICCI, Tauseef Zaman and Adil Anees vice presidents ICCI and Abbas Hashmi chairman ICCI committee for special persons visited the camp to buck up the boys and girls for the Summer Games event.
President ICCI told APP that ICCI has been supporting the Special Olympics Pakistan since its establishment in 1989. "We love to be with these children and we do not want them to be left behind in the field of sports. That is why we care and support these children."
The president along with the ICCI officials went to each training camp and played with them for a while to encourage them. The president further said they haven't sought government's help till now and are doing everything on their own.
Responding to a question, he said, "These kids are provided with all type of assistance and care. We do not want to give any wrong impression to their parents." Abbas Hashmi, chairman ICCI committee for special persons told APP that they wanted to organise a lunch for these children at the ICCI this week but due to lack of space they will be organising the same at Pakistan Sports Complex.
National Sports Director, Arshad Javaid told APP on Tuesday that the camp would last till April 14. "Intellectually challenged athletes including girls and boys of 12 years to 35 years of age are participating in the camp under the supervision of 30 officials, 17 of which are female to look after the female participants. He said, "This year, our athletes will participate in eight games out of 21. These are Track Games, Aquatics, Badminton, Basketball, Bocce (A ball game for low ability athletes), Cycling, Football and Table Tennis.
"It is for the first time, that Pakistan has prepared an unified football team for the mega event that means we included ordinary players with these players also." Arshad said this strategy supports these persons so as to improve them when they play with ordinary players.
He recalled the achievements made by these athletes as they scored third position in International Cricket Carnival held in 2008 at Delhi, India. They also bagged 15 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze medals in the event held in 2007 at Shanghai, China. "Now, we are eyeing upcoming event to bring laurels back to our country," Arshad added. Answering a question, Arshad said kids from government and other schools are provided transportation by their respective institution. "However we are providing transportation to those kids who are residents of Karachi as our head office is based in Karachi. Due to scarcity of funds, we are unable to launch this facility throughout the country."
During the training camp, he added, they provide food, sports instruments and all other necessities from their budget as they have to run the campaign for fund generation as well. He also disclosed that the last training camp for the World Summer Games will be held in Karachi.
The girls for Special Olympic include: Nousheen Khan, Misbah Tariq, Hifza Afzal, Farah Vorha, Jasmin Sharif, Kainat Riaz, Bushra Parveen, Mirza Asmara, Shumaila Aslam, Iqra Batool, Shermin Akber, Sobia Aslam, Saba Ramzan, Um-e-Omama, Ruqia Shoaib, Taiba Rais, Hina Mehmood, Alia Zainab, Asma Riasat, Azmat Tara, Saima Tabassum, Shumaila Rubab, Quart-ul-Ain, Rabia Saeed, Sehrish Bibi, Sana Javaid, Fajar Zaheer, Sumbal Yousaf, Maria Bibi, Atia Khurshid, Mehwish Iftikhar and Maryam Roshin. The boys for Special Olympic include: Tahir Siddique, Sakhwat Ali, Muhammad Israr Ahmed, Rahim Ullah Baig, Adeel Aamir, Zeshan Rana, Saad Ullah, Hasnain Abbas, Aamir Munawar, Osama Munawar, Ahsan.