Secretary general of the Namibia Paralympics Committee (NPC) Michael Hamukwaya says they would like to hand every Namibian living with a disability the opportunity to partake in sport.
In an interview yesterday, Hamukwaya said 2020 was one of the difficult years for para-athletes, which saw most of their planned activities being moved to this year due to the disruption caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
He, however, said this year will be much different as they plan on giving fair opportunities to people with disabilities to partake in different sport codes.
With sports codes such as wheelchair basketball on the rise, scouts are looking at giving talented athletes the necessary exposure.
Hamukwaya added that such kind of initiative will be able to assist with the development and grooming of future talent in the country.
“Last year was one of the bad years for us para-athletes; most of the competition that our athletes were looking at taking part were called off due to the coronavirus that had hit the globe. However, we are optimistic that this year will be one of the best years, looking at competitions lined up,” he said.
“One of the main things that we are pushing for is to identify talent and give opportunities to people with disability a chance to take part in more sport codes. We have wheelchair basketball that is doing tremendously well, and we are still in need of people to compete so we would love to take the opportunity to get more people involved, maybe scout new talent all over Namibia.”
With the cost that comes with developing and grooming new talent, Hamukwaya noted that funding could be the main challenge to ensuring most of these plans are executed properly.
He called on corporate companies to come on board as they continue with their quest to develop future para-athletes.
“Funding still remains a constrain; we can only execute these plans with proper findings. We call on corporate companies to come on board and fund us as we try to get everyone on board,” he said
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na