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Valeriy Aliev, 47, and his daughter, Special Olympics Kazakhstan athlete Elina Aliev, at the FUNfitness screening |
Special Olympics Kazakhstan hosted the first Central Asia Healthy Athletes® FUNfitness Train-the-Trainer seminar in Almaty July 3-6 2008. Volunteer physiotherapists and sport medics from Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were trained as Clinical Directors for FUNfitness, the physical therapy discipline of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program. The seminar was led by Sabine Brecklinghaus, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia Healthy Athletes Manager; Donna Bainbridge, Global Clinical Advisor for FUNfitness; and Katharina Kiss, Special Olympics Romania FUNfitness Clinical Director and sub-regional Clinical Advisor for the Central Asia sub-region.
The seminar agenda covered a general introduction to Special Olympics and its Healthy Athletes initiative as well as specific topics to prepare Clinical Directors for organizing FUNfitness screenings in their own countries. The National Directors of the five Central Asian Special Olympics Programs joined the seminar and were trained to implement FUNfitness. On 5 July seminar participants screened 40 Special Olympics athletes from the Almaty region to gain practical screening experience.
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Special Olympics Kazakhstan athletes, parents and seminar participants. |
Most athletes came to the screening with their parents. Valeriy Aliev, 47, father of Special Olympics athlete Elina, 16, expressed an interest in the screening. “It's great to see health care professionals giving so much attention to our children. We as parents want to hear the opinion of the professionals about the health status of our children. We need to know how to improve their health and fitness and we do not often get the chance to work with health care professionals to find out.” Elina, who competes in bowling, said, “I had excellent results when my hand strength was measured. I need to be strong because bowling balls can be heavy.”
Feedback from the participants was very positive and they plan to organize their first screenings before the end of 2008.
Seminar participants were encouraged to build their FUNfitness efforts by partnering with medical universities, professional associations and UN agencies. Raimbek Sissemaliev, Head of UNICEF Almaty Zone Office, attended the seminar and expressed great interest in the Healthy Athletes initiative. He felt that there is a need for special attention to the health needs of children with intellectual disabilities in Kazakhstan. “The slogan for UNICEF is 'For every child, health education advances humanity,'” Sissemaliev said. “Special Olympics is fulfilling this statement for children with an intellectual disability through its Healthy Athletes initiative and, for this reason, UNICEF Kazakhstan wants to cooperate with Special Olympics Kazakhstan.”
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Seminar participants and UN agency representatives |
Danara Ismukhanova, Director of the Almaty office of World Health Organization Kazakhstan, also attended the seminar and expressed interest in working with Special Olympics Kazakhstan. It was agreed that Special Olympics Kazakhstan will work with WHO through the National Healthy Lifestyle Promotion Center. The Vice Director of the Center, Sholpan Korzhaubaeva, also attended the seminar.
"The first FunFitness train-the-trainer seminar was a huge success. We greatly appreciate the efforts that Olga Bakhareva, national director, Special Olympics Kazakhstan, and her team made to ensure that we could conduct the training in a highly professional and efficient manner," said Brecklinghaus. "As always, Special Olympics Kazakhstan continues to show it is a good neighbor and friend to all National Programs in Central Asia."
The FUNfitness seminar served as platform for a meeting with Tarja Virtanen, Head of Office, and Aigul Khalafova, Education Specialist, from the UNESCO Cluster Office for Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan). UNESCO and Special Olympics Program representatives discussed possible action steps in the field of children and youth inclusive education.
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(left to right) Gulnara Saidova, National Director, Special Olympics Uzbekistan; Aigul Khalafova, Education Specialist from the UNESCO Cluster Office for Central Asia; Tarja Virtanen, Head of Office, UNESCO Cluster Office for Central Asia; Sabine Brecklinghaus, Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia Manager, Health & Schools/Youth Education; and Olga Bakhareva, National Director, Special Olympics Kazakhstan. All photos: Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia | |
