Special Olympics South Africa was proud to announce a new partnership with The Skateroom and Skateistan South Africa. This partnership heralds the beginning of a pilot programme in South Africa with the goal of teaching children with and without intellectual disabilities to gain more self-confidence in life.
The programme offers the children a safe community and helps them to grow in confidence, experience freedom, and learn new life skills through skateboarding.
The children follow an adapted version of Skateistan’s Skate and Create programme, which combines the sport with creative education. With the help of Skateistan educators, the children follow an arts-based curriculum, designed to help them to explore the world around them and develop their own talents and interests. The pilot launched at the Skateistan premises in Doornfontein three weeks ago and 20 Special Olympics athletes between eight and 12 have already successfully completed three sessions.
As part of the programme, Special Olympics South Africa has trained eight Skateistan educators on how to work with children with an intellectual disability in order to prepare them to deliver the programme to Special Olympics athletes and partners in an inclusive environment.
The initial four sessions will only include Special Olympics South Africa athletes with an intellectual disability from Randburg Clinic School to provide the Skateistan educators the opportunity to focus exclusively on the athletes. In the fifth session, children without intellectual disabilities will be introduced into this fun and inclusive programme.
Juma Dadams, a Special Olympics coach based at Randburg Clinic School said, “[They were] not sure about [their] athletes taking part in the sport but the principal said to give it a try. We were all amazed when we saw how quick they were able to take instruction and grasp the sport. We hope by the end of the programme, they will be great skateboarders.”
The programme is being funded by part of the sales of The Skateroom x Van Gogh Museum collection featuring skateboards adorned with iconic artworks by Vincent van Gogh. This collection of art decks is dedicated to helping those in need of finding their own voice.
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