The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation’s (VVAF) Sports for Life program gives people with disabilities a chance to come together around sports, providing important opportunities for social reintegration

Warren, Sarah

English

James Madison University

Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Volume 6 Issue 3 The Journal of Mine Action Article 8 December 2002 VVAF and Sports for Life: Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Rights Sarah Warren Save the Children Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal  Part of the Defense and Security Studies Commons, Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Warren, Sarah (2002) "VVAF and Sports for Life: Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Rights," Journal of Mine Action : Vol. 6 : Iss. 3 , Article 8. Available at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol6/iss3/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction by an authorized editor of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact dc_admin@jmu.edu. • VVAF volleyball players compete at the Sydney Para-olympics. c/o Andy Eams VVAF and Sports for life: Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Rights .. _ The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's (WAF) Sports for Life program gives people with disabilities a chance to come together around sports, providing important opportunities for social reintegration. by Sarah C. Warren, VVAF Rehabilitation Redefined VVAF began implementing pro-grams for people with war-related d is-abilities in 1992 in Cambodia. 1 In 199 1, on their first trip back w southeast Asia since the Viernam War, VYAF's founders had been overwhelmed by the images of coundess amputees wandering and beg-gi ng in the streets of Phn om Penh, Cambodia's capital. The appalling living conditions and lack of medical treatment wirnessed by the returning veterans on th is trip inspired them ro set up the Kien Khleang Rehabilitation Center, which stands on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Today, VVAF runs a wral of four reha-bilitation centers th roughout Cambodia, as well as the highly successful }oom Noon silk weaving cooperative run by people • 24 • with disabilities. VVAF also works in seven other war-affected counrries around the world, running comprehensive reha-bilitation, education and advocacy pro-grams. As VVAF's programs have grown, so w o has our understanding of how best w help landmine survivors and other people with disabilities return w an ac-tive life. VVAF has recognized what is becoming standard thinking among many rehabili tation organizations work-ing in post-war countries: it is nor enough simply w provide a person with an artifi-cial limb or a wheelchair. Add ressing the broader emotional, social and economic needs of survivors is a critical aspect of rhe rehabi litation process and should in no way be misconstrued as a luxury. In-deed, without an opportunity to leave their homes and participate in commu-nity life-and without enough self-con-fidence w get them our of the house-some people feel they have no reason ro wear a prosthesis or make use of a wheel-chair. Follow-up care and outreach ser-vices are essential to ensure that devices are appropriately constructed and fi tted and are being used properly. Beyond this, though, we must also support survivors in becoming reintegrated into all aspects of community life, including education, employment, recreation, and social and political activities. Barriers exist in every society that make such integration challenging, a!J of rhem bolstered by one of rhe largest bar-riers of all: people's ani tudes towards dis-ability. Problematic are both the self-im-age of people with d isabilities and the perceptions of society as a whole. In the countries in which VYAF works, people with disabilities are rypica!Jy regarded with pity, scorn, mistrust or complete indifference. In fact, in many places, people with disabilities are practically invisible. Making progress on issues such as accessibility, education and employ-ment requi res a shift in attitude toward disability, as well as the adoption and enforcemenr of appropriate policies. In-clusive and respectful practices must be developed at the family, commun ity and societal levels. Ultimately, for real and lasting change to occur, people with disabilities must themselves demand reform. They must make themselves visible and insist that their voices be heard. To be effective and far-reaching, this movement fo r change should be advanced by a unified group of people with all types of d isabili-ties. T h us, landmine survivors should come wgether with people with other types and causes of disabili ry to share their experiences and forge a!Jiances. VVAF's new Sports for Life initiative is designed ro help people do just that, ro build a bridge between physical rehabilita tion and social reintegration by providing people with rhe opportunity to come tO-gether around sports and recreational ac-riviries and begin advocating for them-selves. Sport as an Entry Point The basic concept underlying Sports for Life is that that sport can be used as a powerful vehicle for change. On rhe in-dividual level , sports and recreation play an important parr in promoting physical health and mobility, as well as emotional well-being and self-confidence. At rhe same rime, sports and recreation activi-ties provide people with disabilities an opportunity-sometimes their first op-portunity-to come together to share ideas and experiences. What begins as a conversation about sport typically evolves inro a conversation about accessibility, employmenr or education. Also, because of irs wide appeal , sport provides an in-viting and positive way ro increase the visibility of people with disabilities in their communities, drawing attention to thei r strengths and abilities. Also, sports and recreation activities can be integrated so rhar able-bodied people play with people with disabilities in a fi.m, coop-erative setting. Thus, sports can be re-garded as an entry point ro working on a variety of other issues rhar are significant ro people with disabilities. • 25 • Reversal of Fortune In Cambodia, people have tradition-ally looked upon disability as a sign of bad karma. meaning that people with dis-abilities eviden rly brough r misfortune upon themselves through some wrong-doing in a previous life. The disabled vol-leyball p layers supported by VVAF's Sports for Lite program no longer buy into that conception of disability. The Cambodian National Volleyball Team for the Disabled currently ranks fourth in rhe world in standing volleyball. Standing volleyball is a sport played by people with a fairly h igh level of mobility, such as people with a single arm or leg amputa-tion and people with limited paralysis, such as some polio survivors. VVAF has supported rhe national ream since 1999, when ir was training for the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Cambodia won only one of irs five marches in Australia, bur returned ro the practice court at VVAF's Kien Khleang Rehabilitation Center deter-mined to train harder than ever and in-crease its level of play. With support from irs sponsor, Cathay Pacific, and singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith, VVAF sent the ream to rhe World Cup Games in Slovakia in 200 1. T here, rhe team played • A volleyball player signs autographs for Australian schoolgirls. c/o Andy Eams 1Warren: VVAF and Sports for Life:  Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and RightsPublished by JMU Scholarly Commons, 2002an oursranding rournamenr, narrowly losing irs battle for rhe bronze medal. The efforts of the volleyballers are having a great impact on Cambodian society, as well as rhe lives of individual players. Cambodians take pride in the achievements of their team, while young people with disabilities are finding new role models ro emulate. What is more, rhe players are demonstrating an unprec-edented level of self-confidence. T he ream's coordinator, Chris Minko, noted rhar "some of the players have been seen strutting through rhe streets of Phnom Penh wearing shorts and showing off rheir prostheses," a scene rhar would have been unimaginable in Cambodia just two shore years ago. In June and July of 2002, VVAF coordinated the first ever national league • Two girls with disabilities fish at a competition on a lake in Kosovo.c/o Sarah Warren competition for people with disabilities. Three teams from Phnom Penh and five from outlying provinces traveled to rhe Kien Khleang Center to participate. The first year of the league proved to be a re-sounding success. Particularly exciting was the zeal with which former national team players set out ro recruit and train new team members. Local businesses, government leaders and media organiza-tions also threw their support behind the effort, reAecting a significant change in attitude toward athletes with disabilities and people with disabilities in general. At the end of the league competition, a selection competition was held and a new national team was identified ro play in the upcoming Far East Asian (FESPIC) games in Ocrober 2002 in Busan, Korea. This newest ream is determined to add a • 26 • gold medal to the long list of remarkable achievements Cambodia's volleyballers have already established. In the coming year, VVAF plans to expand irs Spores for Life activities in Cambodia. The national league will be expanded from eight teams ro 12, and a new federation will be established to over-see future development of disabled vol-leyball in the country. The national team will hold a competition against one of irs regional neighbors. Also, VVAF will implement a training program for irs re-habilitation staff in order to increase rhe use of sports and recreational activities within VVAF's rehabilitation centers. Fi-nally, VVAF will conduct a detailed as-sessment to determine how best to pro-more rhe inclusion of people with dis-abilities in sports and recreational activi-ties at the community level. After the Emergency VVAF began irs Kosovo program after the conclusion of the war in 1999, implementing mine/UXO education for 90,000 at-risk you rhs and providing socio-economic and psychosocial support to 400 people with war-related disabili-ties and rheir families. These projects re-sponded to the immediate needs of post-war Kosovo, particularly the need to ad-dress both the threat and consequences created by landmine/UXO contamina-tion. By the end of 2001, though, rhe mine/UXO threat had been contained and rhe urgent needs of the survivors met. l n general, Kosovo was ready to move beyond the emergency phase and em-brace the transition to development. While many organizations withdrew from Kosovo ar this stage, VVAF chose to stay and help the Kosovars through rhis very delicate transition period. Although rhe crisis may be over, there remains much work to be done to build a stable democ-racy and, in particular, to ensure char sur-vivors and all people with disabilities in-reg rate into a democratic Kosovo. Through a comprehensive new Sports for Life program, VV AF is taking on the chal-lenge of helping Kosovo build a strong and inclusive civil society. VVAF has actually been implement-ing sports activities as part of irs Kosovo program since irs inception, incorporat-ing mine awareness training into soccer clinics and helping youths organize sports evenrs through which they spread mine awareness to their peers. VVAF also implemented sports activities in isolated minority villages, reaching out to some of rhe most disadvantaged youth in the province. In 2001, VVAF employed pro-gram development special ist and wheel-chair athlete Andrew Houghton to ini-tiate VVAF's disability sports and recre-ation activities in Kosovo. Houghton dis-covered a great deal of interest in sports throughout the province, bur found that most groups did not have the equipment, rraining or information that they needed to develop meaningful programs. For example, 80 athletes expressed a desire to compere in wheelchair basketball , but only 20 spores chairs could be found in all of Kosovo. Furthermore, rules for the game did not exist in local languages. So VVAF translated rules and began provid-ing sports equipment to local groups and schools. VVAF also learned tha t many people, disabled and non-disabled alike, had never been exposed ro disability sports activities and therefore lacked an und erstanding of what was possible. Houghton observed that "many people didn't even want to try, but after one went our and started to play, the others fol-lowed. It's typical-people never know what it will be like until they get out there and participate." With this in mind, Houghton organized three wheelchair tennis clinics, facilitated recreational ac-tivities for youth and brought together disability organizations, the Department of Sport, the Kosovo Olympic Commit-tee and the tennis and basketball federa-tions to organize a major disability sports and recreation exhibition. After this event, the sponsors signed a joint procla-mation declaring their commitment to developing disability sports and recre-ation programming in Kosovo. ln May 2002, VVAF kicked off irs new Sports for Life initiative in Kosovo, building on the work done by Houghton. Through this new initiative, VVAF is organizing sports and recreation activi-ties that bring people with disabilities rogerher with able-bodied participants and that unify people from a variety of ethnic communities torn apart by con-flict. VVAF conducts sporrs clinics and tournaments to introduce participants to new activities and develop their skills and confidence. At the same rime, VVAF is helping local disability organizations form Disability Sports Advisory Commit-tees by providing training and equip-ment. These groups will be responsible for implementing activities in their re-spective regions throughout Kosovo. In the long run , VVAF hopes that these groups will use their new organizational skills and nenvorks to tackle other im-portant issues beyond sports and recre-ation. The second major component of this new Spores for Life project is disability awareness training. VVAF's six reams of cducarors will spend half of their rime educating youth at the secondary school level abom the concerns and rights of people with disabilities. Guest speakers will be brought in to tell their own sto-ries of life as a person with a disability in Kosovo. The purpose of reaching our to Kosovo's young people with these mes-• 27 • sages is ro begin building a society that is more accepting and attuned ro the rights of people with disabilities. By beginning with the youth, we are making an invest-ment in Kosovo's fmure leaders, parents, doctors and caretakers. A Global Mission VVAF's goal is to incorporate Sports for Life into each of its overseas programs as a key component of irs work with people with disabilities. ln the coming months, VVAF will establish a Sports for Life program in Angola, which will fo-cus on creating sports and recreation op-portunities for children. Planning is also under way for Sports for Life activities in Vietnam and Ethiopia. Throughom the course of this initiative, VVAF will col-lect and analyze the experiences of each project so that the lessons of the past can inform the development of furure reha-bilitation and advocacy programs by VVAF and other organizations. • Endnote I. VVAF uses rhe name Vererans International in Cam bodia and Angola. Contact Information Sarah C. Warren Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation 1725 Eye Street NW Fourth Floor Washington, D.C. 20006-2412 Tel: 202-557-7 535 E-mail: sporrsforlife@vi.org Website: www.vvaf.org 2Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Vol. 6, Iss. 3 [2002], Art. 8https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol6/iss3/8

VVAF and Sports for Life:  Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Rights

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VVAF and Sports for Life: Promoting Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Rights

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