Sport events and activities offer an important opportunity of raising awareness: First, the activities give all the participants a chance to discover new abilities and capacities, both by oneself and by others. These new perspectives allow a change in established approaches for dealing with each other in daily life. Secondly, activities serve as a forum for information and discussion: family, friends, the community and the disabled themselves can seek information on the causes and the treatment of disabilities, how to avoid risk, raise the awareness about the situation of people with disabilities, the rights of people with disabilities or on various topics such as health risk factors, primary health care, HIV/AIDS, drugs and others.

Pieter van der Houwen