Ilitay is an 18-year-old Youth Leader from Kyrgyzstan. She has been involved with Special Olympics since 2015, volunteering at the 2015 Special Olympics Games in Los Angeles and 2019 Special Olympics Games in Abu Dhabi. She is also the leader of her local Unified Badminton club! Ilitay became a Youth Leader because she believes that all people are equal and have the same rights. She loves to see the happiness from athletes and Unified partners participating together. Ilitay loves being part of the Special Olympic movement because she is helping to creating a society where everyone is equal, friendly, respectful, and tolerant of each other.
Ilitay has identified that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is increasingly turning to digital technologies and many of her friends and peers with intellectual disabilities are being left out of the digital conversation.
Her project aims to solve this problem of digital exclusion by teaching people with intellectual disabilities how to use digital platforms. Ilitay’s project will engage 60 Special Olympic athletes and 10 Youth Leaders to organize training seminars on practical uses of digital technology like Zoom, Google Meet, and Instagram.
llitay hopes that by organizing these trainings, people in her community recognize how inclusion and advocacy must change alongside the challenges those with intellectual disabilities face in order to create an equitable and Unified world!