Seychelles and Special Olympics Africa sign MoU |05 December 2023

The guests in a family photo after the signing

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family signed a memorandum of understanding with the governing body of the Special Olympics for Africa with the aim of introducing unified sports for people with intellectual disabilities.

The signing was held yesterday morning at the Family House, Bel Eau, whereby Special Olympic Seychelles has been accredited by the African governing body of the Special Olympics.

It was Minister for Youth, Sports and Family Marie-Celine Zialor and national coordinator for Special Olympics Seychelles who signed the document, in the presence of First Lady Linda Ramkalawan, and president and managing director for Special Olympics Africa Charles Nyambe.

Mr Nyambe said he is delighted to be among significant leaders from the government and the private sector to formalise the partnership with the vision to drive inclusion for people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID).

He said the objective of the Special Olympics is to increase unified sports worldwide and Special Olympics are a great instrument for inclusion of the people with ID.

He added that the Special Olympics have conducted researches from programmes in school on the inclusion of ID by using unified sports and they have received positive results.

“This commitment aims to engage a large number of new young participants across the country, youths without disabilities in several schools, making a more inclusive unified sports and theme of inclusion as part of their academic-social journey, thus creating a new narrative of unity and solidarity,” said Mr Nyambe, adding that the signing is significant as it will benefit those communities that are not pushing inclusion yet.

He added that Seychelles’ visionary and practical leadership in accepting to partner with Special Olympics Africa, especially considering that the Special Olympics unified sports programme, if implemented well, fulfills the United Nations sustainability development goals in the convention on the rights of people with disabilities, to which the Republic of Seychelles is a signatory.

On her part, Minister Zialor said it took them almost three years to re-organise the Unit for the Disabled within the department family affairs and she is very glad to have reached this point as expectations were very high and questioned.

 “We are here now and this is what counts,” said Minister Zialor, adding that when you are doing something significant it takes time and devotion.

“Seychelles is the second country in Africa to sign this coalition, and when I proposed it to the cabinet of ministers earlier this year, there were no objections; all the ministers, including the President, agreed to the signing of the MoU,” added the Youth, Sports and Family minister who thanked all her colleagues for the support.

Neil Sirame