Never without them” “

The European Day of the Disabled is being celebrated today, 3 December. The European Parliament will give all its support to the requests formulated by the European Disability Forum (EDF). This is what emerged from a recent meeting between the Forum and the representative of the EP, delegate for structural funds, Konstantinos Hatzidakis. According to the MEP, “public projects can no longer be financed without taking disabled persons into account. For not to do so would be to ignore 10% of the European population”. “We are trying – said the chairman of the EDF, Yannis Vardakastanis – to prevent European funding from not generating other forms of inequality and ensuring that it contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of the disabled. We wish to recall that something like 336.1 billion euros are at stake”. It is calculated that there are some 50 million disabled citizens in Europe. Various projects were launched to coincide with the European Day, many concerning the field of work and sport. OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORK AND STUDY FOR THE Disabled. The European Disability Forum (EDF) formulated two projects for the European Day of Disability. Their objective is to insert the disabled in the world of work and to raise awareness of their problems in more sectors of public opinion. An innovative example of cooperation is represented by the first university faculty on European legislation relating to disability, established at the Dutch University of Maastricht on 1st December. “We are proud of this collaboration with the academic institute”, said Yannis Vardakastanis, chairman of EDF. “The defence of the rights of the disabled can attain its objectives also through cooperation with the academic world and European researchers”. The course will have a five-year duration and take into examination the policies and the law on disability in force in Europe and in the world, and opportunities for cooperation between European universities and legal experts. It will also provide opportunities for periods of practical experience for professionals and lawyers who specialize in this field. The other project concerns the birth of the first European network aimed at the insertion of the disabled in the world of work. Some big businesses, leaders in the IT sector and temporary work, have joined together, in collaboration with EDF, and have promoted a programme to spread employment opportunities for the disabled and improve the exchange of ideas and projects in this sector. Disabled and sport. The 1st European Basketball Week will end on 5 December. The event is dedicated to athletes with mental disabilities. Throughout Europe it is involving 6,000 ‘special’ athletes from over 20 European countries. This event, organized by the Special Olympics, the most widely diffused programme of sporting activities for persons with mental disabilities in the world, in partnership with the European Basketball Federation (FIBA Europe), is aimed at promoting this sport. Over 13,000 players are already present in Europe and Eurasia, and the aim is to involve a further 15,000 by 2005. “Basketball – say the organizers of Special Olympics – is an exciting discipline, much appreciated by these special athletes, who day after day obtain victories not only in sport but in every field of life. People with mental disabilities may in fact increase their independence and self-esteem and find opportunities for integration in society through the practice of sport. Basketball is a school of life for our athletes. It teaches respect for the others, for rules, teamwork and self-control. For persons with mental disabilities and for society as a whole it represents an occasion for integration and better quality of life”. Special Olympics was founded by Eunice Kennedy in 1968 and is now a movement involving over a million athletes in over 150 countries. Special athletes train and compete in 26 Olympic sports on the occasion of local, national and international events.