Swazi Observer

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EU, UNICEF PRESENT E280 000 EQUIPMENT

By MGCINI DUBE | 2024-04-30

SPORTS - SO generous!
The European Union and UNICEF, through the Deputy Prime Minister's office, have presented the National Association of the deaf with sports equipment worth E280 069.74.

The handover was held at the DPM's office in Mbabane yesterday, and was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Thuli Dladla, Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Bongani Nzima and top government officials.

The equipment comprises eight soccer balls, 120 soccer boots, 450 round neck T-shirts, two basketball kits and 10 soccer ball pumps.

Other equipment includes stopwatches, eight flag poles, 16 soccer balls, five whistles, two pulling ropes, two netball kits, four netball kits, four netball kits, 20 hoola hoops, eight tennis rockets and eight banners.

The equipment will directly benefit the association in staging their tournaments as they successfully staged another one last year.

It was handed over by EU representative Robert Adams, who appreciated the pro-activeness of the association that came to visit their offices (in September). He said last year, they appreciated the important work to promote rights of people with hearing impairment.

“When we received the proposal from the association aimed at promoting inclusion and participation of the deaf in sport events, we asked UNICEF to verify possible support within the projects funded by the EU budget in line with sustainable development goals tackling inequality and improving industry innovation and infrastructure.

Even if not foreseen, we worked to meet the request and that is why we are here today. Sport is a powerful element to promote social inclusion, awareness raising and cohesion, especially among children and young people: the challenges faced by people with impairments can become barriers if we are not aware of them and open to include all people with disabilities.

This is one of the fundamental values promoted by the EU,” he said. DPM Dladla appreciated the aggressiveness by the National Association of the Deaf in ensuring that they secured assistance from different partners. It is for this reason that we are gathered here today for this official handover. “We thank EU and UNICEF for coming through to donate the equipment.

We know it will go a long way in assisting you. We plead with other companies to join hands and assist the office where possible,” she added.

Minister of Sports Nzima thanked the office of the DPM for coordinating this important partnership. “As a ministry responsible for sport, we are delighted to see more targeted investment go towards persons with disabilities in sports.

This equipment will, therefore, go a long way, not only in providing an important outlet for this community, but also towards addressing Eswatini inclusivity goals in sport.” He added that as the ministry, they were committed to supporting all Emaswati partake in sport.

"We will continue to ensure that people with disabilities feel welcome across all corridors of sport in our kingdom.

“Through the Eswatini Sport and Recreation Council (ESRC), we are supporting national sport associations towards running sustainable disability sport programmes and you will be pleased. to know that basketball and tennis are among those already running such programmes.

We have also supported the setting up of the Eswatini Paralympic Committee, which will work towards ensuring that our athletes with disabilities can soon take part in the Paralympic Games”he said.

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