Disabled athletes in Kosovo
race for understanding
By Rick Scavetta,
Kosovo bureau
Rick Scavetta / Stars and Stripes
United Nations Police officer Dennis DeVilbiss of Las Vegas. Nev., cheers on wheelchair
racers in Pristina, Kosovo, Monday during sporting events organized in part by the Vietnam
Veterans of America Foundation. |
PRISTINA, Kosovo — Wheelchairs whizzing past cheering Kosovars was what exactly
what outreach workers from the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation wanted to see
Monday.
Changing people’s attitudes about the disabled is part of the foundation’s
worldwide effort. The group also offers assistance to those in need and promotes mine
awareness in war-torn lands.
Speeding across the finish line in his wheelchair, Naim Hajdar showed thousands of
fellow Kosovars that a disability won’t stop people from achieving things for
themselves, he said. Paralyzed 12 years ago in a construction accident, Hajdar now leads
the local wheelchair basketball team.
"The people here, they see how disabled people are able to race these
chairs," Hajdar said through an interpreter. "And I enjoy when we are here
together."
The foundation helped organize a daylong sporting event, dubbed "Discover
Abilities — Build Opportunities," together with the Kosova Olympic Committee,
Handikos, a local agency for people with disabilities, and Handicap International, a
French non-governmental organization.
Following the wheelchair race down Pristina’s main thoroughfare, the disabled
athletes and hundreds of spectators moved to the city sports complex for the games’
opening ceremonies.
Founded in 1980, the foundation first took care of veterans in the States still reeling
from Vietnam, said Sarah Warren, a staff member.
Now the foundation’s humanitarian assistance reaches worldwide to include programs
in Cambodia, Angola, Vietnam, El Salvador and Sierra Leone.
In August 1999, shortly after the airstrikes in Kosovo ended, the foundation was on the
ground setting up a headquarters in Pristina, the region’s capital city.
Warren, a Maine native who worked with Save the Children in Afghanistan in 1995, put
her experience to work in war-torn Kosovo.
She developed a curriculum geared toward young adults aged 15 to 24, the age group
experiencing the highest number of mine-related injuries in Kosovo, she said.
Working with small groups of teens in local villages, the foundation’s educators
use a series of games, role-playing skits and discussions to learn how to identify mines
and unexploded ordnance.
Since the Kosovo program began, 86,000 young people have participated. Outreach workers
helped 361 disabled clients in the past two years, many who found achievement through
sporting programs like those held Monday.
For Vietnam veteran John Terzano, the foundation’s vice president, a first-hand
look around Kosovo was an eye-opening experience, he said.
"It’s very humbling to visit the programs," Terzano said.
"It’s truly rewarding, but very humbling."
One of the foundation’s toughest jobs is finding dedicated workers — ones
such as Andy Houghton, the sport and recreation consultant in Kosovo — Terzano said.
Navigating his wheelchair through Pristina, Houghton, 35, learned firsthand the
challenges disabled Kosovars face. Aside from physical barriers, like access to buildings,
disabled Kosovars must overcome stereotypes that they cannot help themselves, Houghton
said.
While Kosovars write new policies to accommodate disabled access, Houghton said
disabled sporting events can change people’s attitudes.
"People look to sports for heroes," Houghton said. "When they see
disabled people achieving success, it will contribute to change."
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