How Unified Sports opens the door to the world of sports for children with disabilities

On June 26-28, in Kaunas, the Republic of Lithuania, a unified football tournament was held for people with special needs. The tournament was held as part of European Football Week 2019 with the support of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

In May of this year, a team, in which AlmaU students took part, entered the International Unified Football Tournament*, taking second place at Republican Unified Tournament held in Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan on May 18 -19, 2019.

Football unites.

The unified football tournament was held with the aim of attracting people with intellectual disabilities to football as a sport and to achieve social integration in society.

Teams from 7 countriestook part in the tournament: Denmark, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Russia and the Republic of Lithuania. The peculiarity of the tournament is that each team consisted of people with intellectual disabilities.

AlmaU 1st year students DaniyarZhaksylyk, AydarUsen and TolendyChaymardan also participated as teammates of players with disabilitiesin the framework of Service Learning discipline.

As you know, Service Learning has been introduced at AlmaU since September 2015, in which students learn to serve the community and put their knowledge into practice, working in nursing homes, homes for the disabled and other social organizations. AlmaU was the first university to introduce this discipline with the aim of developing education through spiritual intelligence through the Service Learning method.

According to the results of the season, our team took 3rd place. The participating teams that took first, second and third places were awarded cups and medals. The winners of “Best goalkeeper”, “Best forward” and “Best defender” nominations were awarded memorable statuettes.

“The international Unified Football Tournament was held in a warm, friendly atmosphere. Participants and organizers of the competition felt like members of one big football family! ” - AsemkulovaGulnarBokanovna, a team coach, a teacher of Service Learning at School of State and Public Policy and Law at AlmaU, shared her impressions.

 

*Unified is one of the programs that gives opportunity for Special Olympics athletes,children and adults with intellectual disabilities, and their teammates - sports athletes, to train together and participate in competitions as part of one team.