Special Olympics joins Social Action Program for Sport

(Caracas, March 1, 2011).- Enrique García, president & CEO of CAF - Latin American development bank," and Dennis Brueggemann, president and regional director of Special Olympics Latin America, signed a partnership agreement which will take the CAF Social Action Program for Sport initially to seven countries in Latin America.

The CAF president said "sport as a training tool for children is a practice which has already given satisfactory results and produced the inclusion of low-income communities in society; this is why we are promoting this project jointly with Special Olympics and Right To Play." García said he was gratified to be developing this type of project "which contributes to the integrated education and development of thousands of Latin American children."

For his part Brueggemann said "we are very pleased with this new partnership with CAF, which will give us the opportunity to increase the number and capacity of our programs which serve children and young people with intellectual disabilities."

"The alliance which comes into being today is a very powerful tool for improving the quality of life of thousands of people who are waiting for an opportunity to demonstrate their skills, not only in sport but as human beings with great qualities for contributing to society," the head of Special Olympics said. "With our joint efforts we will teach the community to celebrate the differences and break paradigms to create a better world with increased equity and equality of opportunity."

The president and regional director for Special Olympics Latin America said his organization had been a pioneer in using sport as a tool for the development for people with intellectual disabilities.

The Social Action Program for Sport, now reinforced by the alliance, will channel funds for sports programs which form values and favor education and life skills, social integration, gender equality, health and disease prevention, along with inclusion of people with special capacities.

The Special Olympics Foundation has been working in Venezuela since 1980, focusing on people with intellectual incapacity in an effort to improve their quality of life through sports training and athletic competition, giving them the opportunity to build their physical skills, develop their personalities and stabilize their feelings.