Special Olympics Africa Region Hosts Its First Sibling & Family Workshop
Special Olympics Africa Region is proud to host the movement’s first Sibling & Family Workshop in Johannesburg, 29–30 August 2018. Siblings and family members joined from Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Siblings Lead the Change
This workshop is the first to bring siblings from different countries in the Africa Region together with Family Support Network Leaders to share experiences, develop leadership skills, and create plans for how they will promote inclusion in their home communities.
Siblings play a critical role in Special Olympics’ mission to create a Unified Generation. By becoming Unified Partners and Youth Leaders, they not only make an impact in the life of their sibling with intellectual disabilities, but bring the message of inclusion to their peers.
Families are the number one fans of our Special Olympics athletes. They give the type of love, support and encouragement that no one else can. Special Olympics is a support network that brings families together in a caring, positive way.
Among Friends with Special Olympics Zimbabwe
At Special Olympics competitions and events, family members are among friends — and feel at home. They watch with pride as their child, sibling, cousin, grandchild, aunt or uncle find success and joy.
They are also among people who really understand. Because even family members can be unaware of all that their child or relative with an intellectual disability can do.
My brother is a golfer. Being part of Special Olympics brought hope into his life, he found his inspiration. Our family was in turn inspired by seeing his focus and his drive awakened for the first time. That’s why I’m involved as a Family Member.
— Catharine Mudyanadzo, Special Olympics Zimbabwe
Many family members become spokespeople or volunteers, coaches, fund-raisers and officials — giving them an important voice in Special Olympics.
Building Communities in Special Olympics Uganda
Families are also an essential link to the community and wider support for our movement. By joining the Family Support Network, becoming a volunteer, and leading the expansion of Young Athletes, Special Olympics family members can really make a difference.
Moses Zikulabe is the father of Hassan, an Athlete Leader in Special Olympics Uganda, and he can share an example of what a child with intellectual disabilities can do when supported by family members.
Hassan Zikulabe impresses all who meet him with his dedication and involvement in social causes. An athlete with cerebral palsy, he is a vocal advocate for persons with disability and sits on a national committee for this cause. He plays a large role in health as well, as a trained Special Olympics Healthy Communities leader.
A retired police officer, three of Moses’ nine children have either a physical or an intellectual disability. He has become a pillar in his community and in Special Olympics Uganda. He shares stories of how he has learned of fathers who have left their wives and their homes due to having a child with a disability. He has personally intervened and counselled the fathers, from one man to another, sharing his own story and in many cases seeing these families reunited.
Family members leading the expansion of Young Athletes in Special Olympics Botswana
Pelotlhomogi Rantseo is a family member, and the passionate Young Athletes national coordinator in Botswana. Special Olympics Young Athletes is a sport and play program for children with and without intellectual disabilities, from ages 2 to 7 years old.
I spend my time going around the country finding the little ones that are hidden. Their parents are so isolated and frustrated by the challenges: they don’t take their children for physiotherapy, they don’t encourage them to move their bodies. Then, even if Special Olympics finds them much later, their children have lost out on the potential that early childhood interventions can bring.
As a mother of a Special Olympics Botswana athlete, Pelotlhomogi has witnessed this first hand.
50 Years of Families Changing the Game
Leading the workshop was Meghan Hussey, herself a sibling and part of the Special Global Olympics Global Youth Engagement team. Read her story on Medium.
My own mother is my role model, as well as Eunice Kennedy Shriver. They showed me: If the world is not accepting of my family, I’ll just have to go out and change the world.
— Meghan Hussey, Special Olympics Global Youth Engagement
50 years ago, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s inspiration to start Special Olympics came from her sister, Rosemary, who had an intellectual disability . Today, siblings and family members of people with intellectual disabilities continue to be leaders in the Special Olympics movement. Together, Special Olympics is working to create more opportunities for siblings to be champions of inclusion in their communities.
Samuel Family Foundation Champions Sibling Engagement
Thanks to the support of Kim Samuel and the Samuel Family Foundation, Special Olympics is able to offer grants to support the growth of sibling engagement in Special Olympics and Family Support Networks.
The Family Support Network connects Special Olympics families with new families of an individual with intellectual disabilities and provides support and information in a critical time of need.
Family Support Networks
The Family Support Network creates opportunities for family members to:
• Become advocates for the Special Olympics movement;
• Match families to share ideas, issues and common interests;
• Volunteer in their loved one’s athletic training; and
• Encourage new families to join Special Olympics.
Learn more about how Special Olympics provides a support network and welcome for families.
