Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment-Ghana (RISE), a Non-Governmental Organization on Thursday donated sports equipment to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.

RISE, which is into good governance and promotion of human rights also supported the PWDs with capacity building in the area of inclusion in development, with special emphasis on using sports for development and the use of participatory techniques to empower members to be actively involved in issues of development.

The Project Manger of RISE-Ghana, Awal Ahmeed, in an address at the presentation ceremony, said the donation which included 12 Wheel chairs, four javelins, three discus and three shot puts, were made possible through the Australian Sports Commission under the auspices of the Australian Government.

According to Ahmeed, the Australian Government through its Sports Commission has committed 12,310 Australian dollars to promote sports among PWDs in the Upper Region.

Ahmeed stated that, a lot of capacity building workshops and the provision of the necessary sports equipment to empower PWDs in sports were being undertaken to ensure that, they participated effectively in sports and other disciplines that were key to development.

“Apart from the donation of the sports facilities by the Australian Government today, it is also promoting disability rights and inclusive development”.

The Project Manager also appealed to the Australian Government, the Government of Ghana and Non-Governmental Organizations to commit more resources to promote PWD Sports, since it was one of the surest way to addressing issues of exclusion, participation, disability rights, and stigma; and get PWDs to participate in mainstream development issues.

The Regional Sports Development Officer, Mr. Ewuntomah Iddrissu commended RISE-Ghana and the Australian government for the gestures to PWDs in the Region.

He re-countered that last year, when the regional PWDs Sports wing participated in the National Unity Games, they encountered various difficulties because they lacked sports equipment... and expressed the hope that the donation would help uplift development of sports among the disabled in the Region.

The Chairman of the Sports Wing of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled, Mr. Thomas Ayine, noted that, in spite of the challenges confronting the PWDs in sports, the regional team still excelled in every event they participated, stressing that the team had won a lot of medals which it could boast of and adding that the donation would enable them train better for more laurels and help them live decent life-styles.**