Middle East/North Africa

During the pandemic, Special Olympics Chile coordinated with Chile's National Ministry of Education to create a virtual physical education curriculum for students of all abilities.

Special Olympics Morocco is meshing inclusion efforts with Moroccan culture through weekly "Walk and Talks" with athletes and Unified partners.

The three-day 2020 Special Olympics MENA Regional Youth Leadership Summit brought together youth with and without intellectual disabilities from 8 Special Olympics programs, watch the highlights here.

The Play Unified: Learn Unified project in Morocco is driving inclusive education policy.

In February 2021, Youth Leaders in Egypt planned and participated in the country's first ever Unified Fitness Challenge.

Special Olympics Middle East / North Africa (MENA) youth are prioritizing the inclusion of persons with disabilities as a critical need of the hour. In response to a video prompt led by Special Olympics MENA, youth from Special Olympics (SO) Bahrain, SO Lebanon, SO Egypt and SO Morocco share powerful messages about the need for young people to lead to include. Youth leaders, advocates of inclusion of persons with disabilities, unified partners, and mentors also shared about their experience with Special Olympics MENA and how inclusion empowers everyone to succeed.Read the Full Article

Ben McBride is a volunteer football (soccer) coach from Special Olympics UAE. Prior to joining Special Olympics UAE as a Coach, Ben organized various sports programs for athletes of determination* for over 15 years.

In my role as a Special Olympics coach, Special Olympics Iran athletes taught me about the pivotal role that the Special Olympics athletes play in society.

Three Special Olympics athletes are featured in the recently released New York Times Best Seller Humans.

Youssef saw his friends beaten and bullied, then he was beaten and bullied—all because they have intellectual disabilities. Instead of giving up, he became determined to show the world that people with ID can do anything “if only we are given the chance.”