Special Olympics Papua New Guinea

Special Olympics PNG eyes major international events

These include the Pacific Special Games and the Special Olympics Unified Football World Cup.

The Pacific Special Games will be held in 2017 in Fiji, run by the Special Olympics Asia Pacific.

SOPNG president Takale Tuna said selections for the Pacific Special Games will be made following the PNG Games in March next year.

SOPNG has been tasked by the 8th PNG Games organising committee to run the five aside unified football at the Kimbe Games.

Special Olympics plans to set up programs nationwide

Currently SOPNG is only established in the National Capital District, Central Province and Bougainville.

SOPNG president Takale Tuna says they’re slowly getting there in establishing programs in other provinces.

Tune said the support of PNG Sports Foundation has been great and SOPNG is actually piggy backing on their disability sports program.

He added that the volunteers are actually being trained by the PNG Olympic Committee and PNG Sports Foundation.

Special Olympics carry out leadership training for athletes

The three days training is aimed to encourage athletes to be leaders so they can represent themselves well on the SOPNG Board.

SOPNG also aims to establish an athlete council so this training is vital to prepare the participants for that.

SOPNG has invited an expert from Special Olympics Australia to train the athletes and their mentors.

SOPNG president Takale Tuna said they are pushing for the athletes to be leaders.

Unified Football Competition ends

The competition ran for five months and saw 500 participants take part in ten teams from schools, organisations and villages.

These include Gabagaba Village, Cheshire Homes, Kalang Services, Red Cross and Hohola Demonstration School.

Unified football is a mixture of able body and people with intellectual disabilities.

SOPNG president Takale Tuna said the competition aims to drive the message of social inclusion.