As part of the Adaptative Sports Program, the Union of Parishes of Gondomar, Valbom and Jovim in collaboration with a local recreational and social association, Silveirinhos,
developed an initiative in the European Week of Sport that took place between 23 and 30 September 2022, with the aim of sharing good sports practices adapted.
Silveirinhos’ mission is the rehabilitation and socio-professional integration of people with disabilities and/or mental illness in the sense of their personal, social and professional training. With this objective always present, they immediately accepted our
invitation to carry out 2 activities with União de Freguesias.
These activities focused essentially on 3 points:
– promote a taste for sport in its target population;
– show examples of athletes who, with disabilities, have achieved great sporting
achievements and remain active and integrated into society;
– provide the joint practice of sport between this population and people without any type of disability, promoting contact and adaptation between all.
The first activity carried out was on September 29, 2022, on the premises of Sport
Adapted from FC Porto, a big Portuguese football club in the city of Porto.
The participants had the opportunity to meet FC Porto Boccia paralympic athletes and their coaches/assistants. The initiative presented was on the game “Boccia”, a modality internationally recognized. In historical terms, this sport was introduced in Portugal in 1983, during a course organized by APPC (Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy), in close
collaboration with CP-ISRA (International Association of Sport and Recreation for Cerebral Palsy). This modality besides being practiced by athletes with cerebral palsy and/or other neurological dysfunctions with origin in the central nervous system and severe neuromuscular dysfunctions of non-cerebral origin affecting the four limbs, can also be practiced by people without limitations.
It was a morning of sharing experiences, where they learned to play the sport and got to know the sporting achievements achieved by the athletes.
This initiative is configured as a privileged medium based on inclusion, social integration, transmission of values, rules and personal, social and cultural development of society.
