There was a time when it was almost impossible to tell that Kristof and the two girls in his family were a set of triplets, and a time when Jonas spent most of his time alone in his room.
Now Kristof is racing around his family’s garden with his sisters, a wide smile on his face, and Jonas is a team leader teaching younger kids how to play basketball.
“This came up and everything changed,” said Sigurborg Sturludottir about the change she noticed in her son Jonas after he joined a basketball club for children with intellectual disabilities in Iceland.
The Special Olympics Haukar Basketball team, along with projects across five other European countries, is a beneficiary of the Inclusion through Sports for Children with Developmental Disabilities.
Funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation, the three-year initiative aims to help children with intellectual disabilities, their parents, teachers and carers to better integrate into society.
Since its launch in 2020, it has changed the lives of more than 5,000 children in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia.
Fundatia Motivation Romania, Special Olympics Europe Eurasia and the Special Olympics branches of each of the six beneficiary countries are among the nine partners, together with the Poznań University of Physical Education.
Some projects within this initiative fund clubs where children can participate in team sports training and tournaments. Others focus on delivering fun exercises in the gym to develop cognitive, social and motor skills, among their participants is Kristof from Romania.
Kristof comes from a set of triplets and until he was born, his family did not know that he had developmental differences, the boy’s father Tamas Csaba explained. His son struggled with balance, walking and breathing, and often could not keep up with his sisters.
The exercises have helped Kristof not only to get stronger physically, but also to develop his social skills.
“He was very shy. At first, he did not accept anyone. It was hard working with him. The therapy and events in which we participated in and will continue to participate in, they helped him along the way. I have no words. I am very happy to see him happy.”
Social integration is one of the key goals of the Inclusion through Sports for Children with Developmental Disabilities. The initiative encourages children with and without intellectual disabilities to play together, and offers the broader community an opportunity to learn more about differences.
The preliminary results of a study done by Poznan University show that the initiative has already brought numerous benefits.
University researchers documented the views of 123 athletes, 133 partners, 144 coaches and 178 family members to carry out the preliminary study. Coaches across the five countries surveyed noticed significant improvements among their athletes in terms of motor abilities, social abilities, daily living skills, communication, emotional expression and happiness.
Coaches also noted that Unified partners—children without disabilities who participate in the activities—understood intellectual disability better and improved their attitudes toward it.
In a survey of athletes, 97 per cent said they feel better about themselves since playing with their teams, and 81 per cent said that being part of a team has helped them to interact with other people.
“For the children with disabilities [it’s] especially important because doing sports increases their self-confidence. Children without disabilities get used to interacting with the children, see them as children and not as people without something, but rather as people with different needs.”
Jonas is one of the children who has gained a circle of friends—in addition to an impressive set of basketball skills—as a result of his involvement in the initiative.
“Basketball makes me very happy. Now I am more confident and have more friends,” said Jonas who has been playing with Haukar Basketball for more than two years. “I always wanted to be a good example for kids like me.”
His father Dorsteinn Jonasson echoed that statement.
“Before he was alone a lot of the time,” Jonasson said. “It’s helping him in every way.”
Rather than observers, family members are active participants of the initiative, similarly to teachers and carers. They can participate in family forums or informative workshops on a variety of topics. For example, for the last three years, Special Olympics has visited elementary schools for children with special needs to educate teachers and families about inclusive health and healthy lifestyles in all six countries involved in the project.
An extra effort was also made to enhance communication about intellectual disabilities with Special Olympics Europe Eurasia offering a series of webinars on storytelling, media relations and social media.
Meanwhile, a fellow Expertise Partner, Special Olympics Iceland, coordinated the transfer of knowledge among the partners and hosted a final gathering of the initiative’s consortium in Reykjavik in October 2023.
The Inclusion through Sports for Children with Developmental Disabilities initiative will wrap up at the end of the year. However, its participants have made connections that are expected to last long after.
“Because of the project, the partners will stay in touch after that,” Beudean said. “The project made it possible for them to be even closer.”
