The Agitos Foundation has announced the 29 grantees of the seventh edition of its Grant Support Programme (GSP), which makes available grants of up to EUR 40,000 to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) members.
Seventy-four applications were submitted to the Agitos Foundation, and 66 were eligible for review. Nineteen National Paralympic Committees (NPCs), eight International Federations (IFs), and two International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled (IOSDs) were selected.
NPCs Ivory Coast (Para powerlifting), Myanmar (goalball), and Norway (Para ice hockey) will be grantees of the program for the first time. Since 2013, 67 NPCs, five Regional Organizations (ROs), 20 IFs, and three IOSDs have received GSP grants.
Some of the highlights from the 2019 edition include the initiatives led by Brazil, El Salvador, the Netherlands, and Norway, all focused on increasing the number of female participants in Para sport.
Similarly to other developed NPCs, which are encouraged to submit collaborative proposals, NPC Angola has taken a mentorship role in a proposal to increase the organizational capacity of other Portuguese-speaking African countriesMozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Agitos Foundation is supporting initiatives to offer Para sport opportunities to refugees and internally displaced persons. The Hellenic Paralympic Committee will expand its long-standing initiative with refugees to a collaborative project with France, Serbia, Portugal, Spain, and Austria, while the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) will offer Para sport opportunities in refugee camps in Jordan.
Rita van Driel, Agitos Foundation executive committee chairperson, said: “The Agitos Foundation is very proud to see how much the IPC Membership has achieved in the last seven years thanks to the Grant Support Programme. We are particularly glad to see three National Paralympic Committees being granted for the first time and so many initiatives focused on enhancing the participation of women in Para sport.”
LIST OF GSP19 BENEFICIARIES
National Paralympic Committees:
Angola – Coach training, NPC mentoring, and athlete’s pathway support in Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe
Armenia – I’mPOSSIBLE in Armenia
Benin – National championship in wheelchair basketball, goalball, Para athletics, and Para table tennis
Bhutan – Paralympic festival in Eastern Bhutan
Brazil – Para snowboard training camp for athletes and coaches from five American countries
Chile – National high-performance camps for young athletes and coaches
Colombia – South American development workshops for Para athletics, Para swimming, and Para cycling
Costa Rica – I’mPOSSIBLE in Costa Rica
El Salvador – Organization of festivals, identification of young female athletes, and training camp in El Salvador, Panama, and Nicaragua
Greece – Paralympic education and development for refugees and asylum seekers with disabilities IV
Israel – Collaborative goalball high-performance training camp
Ivory Coast – Training camps for high-level powerlifting athletes and trainers in Francophone West Africa
Morocco – Preparation for Tokyo 2020 in Para athletics for African countries
Mozambique – Introduction of sitting volleyball in central Mozambique
Myanmar – Development of goalball in Myanmar
Netherlands – Female Para snowboard camp with seven European NPCs
Norway – Collaborative youth and female development camps
Uganda – Increasing national youth participation in Para sports
United States – Mentoring coach, official, and athlete seminars for 5-a-side soccer
International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled:
Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) – Education on cerebral palsy and related conditions in Africa and creation of an online cerebral palsy and sport awareness course
International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS) – Enhancing the eligibility process for athletes with an intellectual impairment
International Federations:
Badminton World Federation (BWF) – Development of Para badminton in Africa
International Canoe Federation (ICF) – Athlete, coach, and classifier development program in West Africa
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) – Dream building with refugees in Jordan
World Para Athletics (WPA) – South American RaceRunning development camp
World Para Alpine Skiing (WPAS) – Para alpine ski school training in Serbia
World Para Nordic Skiing (WPNS) – Classifier technical education
World Para Snowboard (WPSB) – Classifier technical education
World ParaVolley (WPV) – Training of officials in ParaVolley Europe
For more information, visit www.agitosfoundation.org.