Haramaya University to fully respect disabled students’ right to participate in adaptive sports

Haramaya University Sport Academy in collaboration with the Federal Paralympics Committee trained trainers of the academe from May 27- June 06, 2022 on coaching and Teaching Competence of students with disability.

Mr. Yonas Alemayehu, a senior education and training expert at the Federal Paralympics Committee, said the training was given to University teachers who are going to train students with disabilities to make them as successful and healthy as anyone else. He said the training is necessary to respect the right of people with disabilities to participate in the sports sector and to introduce scientific methods to prevent further harm during the training of people with disabilities. Mr. Yonas added that Paralympics games are successful at national level next to athletics. To maintain this success, the work needs to be done in collaboration with centers of excellence such as Haramaya University.

Dr. Desta Eniyew, dean of Haramaya University Sport Academe, in his part, said that the University is full of infrastructure which enables them to do more in the field of sports and to make more significant contribution to the eastern part of the country and the country as a whole as one cannot dare to say that work has been done as required and expected. Dr. Desta added that the purpose of the training is to provide scientific training for physically disabled students to enable them to be trained without any further injury. Moreover, the University is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the federal Paralympics Committee to work cooperatively on the Paralympics sport, according to Dr. Desta.

“On behalf of the sport academe, I would like to appreciate the unreserved effort of the University’s higher management to develop the sport. Currently, we are working to train the local youths in various sports, and we call up on the local community to work with us,” said Dr. Desta.

Mr. Naol Tilahun, head of the Department of Sports Science, in his turn, said appropriate curriculum has not been designed for students with disabilities. Therefore, this training has been designed to fill the gaps of the curriculum.

“In the future, I hope a curriculum which considers physically disabled students will be developed and implemented. I think this is the first time that we have accepted a student with physical disability in the Department of Sports Sciences at our University; it may be the same at national level,” said Mr. Naol.

“ By working with the federal Paralympics committee, we will do our part to make Haramaya University training center and center of excellence in sports for physically disable people by bringing together physically disable people who have not had the opportunity to contribute their share to themselves in particular and to the country in general,” added Mr. Naol.

Mss. Serawit Birhanu, one of the trainees and a teacher at Haramaya University sport academe, told us the training will help them to become aware of the Paralympics games and to succeed in coaching and educating students with physical disabilities in the future.

Source: HARAMAYA University