Let’s support disability sports 

Sports is one of the fields that generate and spend so much money in the world.

When one hears that somebody is a footballer, the person thinks of money especially when the person plays for the national team or for a famous club.

Several people have made it in life through sports.

Sports is one of the avenues through which people become famous or popular.

Some sportsmen due to their popularity are invited to run certain adverts which give them additional revenue.

Sport is a lucrative field for most people in the sports sector. But the fantastic question then is, is the story the same for every sector of the sports fraternity?

It looks like while some people are gaining so much through sports, others are not equally enjoying that gain. Despite the fact that the sports sector has several journalists and analysts, there is little publicity on disability sports.

One hardly hears of disability sports when listening to commentaries and studio discussions. Meanwhile, there are disability sports in Ghana and it is surprising to know that disability sports have won several medals for Ghana.

They have made Ghana proud on several occasions yet little or no attention is given to it.

Almost all the sportsmen and women in disability sports are lamenting for lack of resources and logistics. They have a few training materials and there is a lack of funding in that sector.

They lament that all that they get are their medal bonus and per diem.

They are not able to get extra money to attend training sessions but they have to use their feeding money to do so.

This has had a negative impact on recruiting new members into disability sports.

This is because the person might see it as a way of gaining employment and yet he or she might have to spend the little he or she has to cater for him or herself in attending training sessions. 

It is astonishing to know that Ghana is the first country to initiate a wheelchair gulf in Africa, which is a huge story and yet one hardly hears of it.

I call on the government to take a good look at disability sports in the country so that it can be a little if not more lucrative and their efforts will be recognized more than how it is now.

I also call on other organizations to help in the training of persons with disability.

I know that some organizations like the H4P have started training young individuals with their inter-school disability fun games in Ghana.

However, we would love to see more of these initiatives from all stakeholders in Ghana so that together we can promote and produce well-branded disability sports in Ghana.