ISC - Beyond Handicaps - Orma International

On April 17 2024, all the partners gathered in Athens, Greece for the first Transnational Project Meeting of the Project Inclusive Swimming Competition (ISC) – Beyond Handicaps. The ISC- Beyond Handicaps is an Erasmus+ Sports Project, co-funded by the European Union, with the partnership of Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria and Greece. The project aims to:

Promote active engagement and social inclusion of physically challenged children through swimming activities with their peers who are not disabled by encouraging sports groups to bring together physically disabled and non-disabled children in the pool.
Encourage youngsters, both disabled and non-disabled, to engage in more physical exercise, fostering a community atmosphere.
Finally, create a new type of sporting competition that matches kids with disabilities and kids without disabilities.

At the start of the meeting, LUSOFONA University from Portugal took the stage to present the Survey Analysis Report of the research work carried out so far, which mainly focused on the specific needs of the young children with disabilities and non-disabilities (10-14 years old). This research work also involved the families, coaches, and sport clubs, to obtain an in-depth evaluation. Following this, other partners joined the discussion to discuss the programme content and the general situation of the sport clubs in all partner countries for the implementation. A SWOT analysis workshop was also organized for the same, to identify the necessary steps and put into practice the developed programme.

The meeting concluded with the selection of the programme content and its structure. Moving forward, while other partners work on proposing activity ideas alongside the programme content, LUSOFONA University and the Portuguese Swimming Federation are responsible for working on the creation of the programme. The developed programme will be displayed to the partners in the next project transnational meeting in Portugal in October 2024. The developed programme upon presenting to the partners, is intended to be implemented in the respective sport clubs of each project partner.

The project meeting ended with the decision on program contents and structure. Until the next meeting on 21-25 October in Portugal, the Inclusive Swimming Competition Program will be ready by the university and federation to present the partners and to implement inside of the sports clubs.

Stay updated for further information on our channels,