Raising Awareness in India

Too often it’s so easy to forget how hard it is to raise awareness about Special Olympics. In the United States, Special Olympics has very high recognition and name awareness. That’s not so true in other parts of the world. In places like India, and many others, it’s critical to raise awareness about the positive impact our athletes can make in their society. So it’s really great to get reports from our field about events like the one below. Check it out!

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Six hundred people walked together, 300 with intellectual disabilities and 300 without intellectual disabilities, in a unified walk along the Marina Beach in Chennai, India on Sunday, March 6. Participants included SO Bharat (India) athletes, students without ID from local high schools and colleges, medical professionals, media presenter Jennifer Arul of NDTV HINDU, and Indian National Squash team players, including Dipika Pallikal, Joshana Chinappa, and Saurav Ghosal. Many pairs walked holding hands along the one kilometer stretch to a celebratory breakfast at the end.

The event organized by the Down Syndrome Association of Tamil Nadu in conjunction with Special Olympics Bharat — Tamilnadu and was designed to raise awareness about people with ID.

See a few pictures from the event.

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