137 blind and visually impaired students between the ages of 11 and 16 from all over Spain will participate in the ONCE School Sports Meeting, which starts this Friday in Tarragona and will end on September 6, under the motto ‘Let’s all play! yes!’
Together with them, 24 sports companions and 60 support people participate in an initiative aimed at promoting inclusive sport, practicing it and sharing sports experiences with the ultimate goal of promoting the social integration of students through sport, demonstrating that this practice should be for everyone, especially in schools.
During these days of coexistence in the Educational Complex of Tarragona, the participating students will practice various sports: soccer, goalball, swimming, athletics, judo and tandem/mountain. They will dedicate the morning sessions to this, while the afternoons will be occupied with multiple leisure/sports activities as well as excursions and other activities such as cinema or music, according to ONCE.
The 137 blind or visually impaired students gathered at this School Sports Meeting were born between 2006 and 2011 and come from the areas of influence of the five Educational Resource Centers (CRE) that ONCE manages in Alicante, Pontevedra, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville.
The essential objective of ONCE as the organizer of this meeting is to prioritize the positive experience of each of the participants over the results of the competition. The initiative is aimed at children and young people knowing different sports activities that they can practice inside and outside sports schools and that can help them to facilitate their social inclusion. In short, the promotion, development and continued practice of physical-sports activities of students affiliated to ONCE of school age are sought.
According to the director of the Barcelona CRE, Manel Eiximeno, “obviously, the practice of sport is an important part of inclusion within society. For the students affiliated to ONCE who are in the ordinary school framework, it is essential that both the practice and the knowledge of the different sports that they can also access outside school, in their neighborhood, in their town or in your city”.
In Eiximeno’s opinion, the School Sports Meeting held in Tarragona provides the participating students with “social relations, autonomy and, most importantly, cooperation in the practice of the different sports modalities. For blind or visually impaired people, treatment among equals is essential and this opportunity to spend several days together in a playful and cooperative format is very positive for boys and girls”.
The vice-president of the General Council of ONCE, Imelda Fernández; the territorial delegate of ONCE in Catalonia, Enric Botí; and the president of the ONCE Territorial Council in Catalonia, David Bernardo, will attend the opening of the meeting.
