PADS launches ‘Sports for All’ program for young paddlers

CEBU, Philippines — As the world celebrates the International Day of People with Disability, the country's award-winning Philippine Accessible Disability Services Inc. (PADS) Adaptive Dragon Boat Racing Team continues to inspire the children of Cebu through its mission.

Employing dragonboat as a platform in connecting children with disabilities and abled children to play in a common playground, PADS Dragon Boat Racing Team has launched a project to reach out to the community and made this goal existing and possible.

About 40 kids aged 13 years old and below from a coastal slum area in Brgy. Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City are now being trained as pioneers of PADS junior paddlers along with other 30 children with special needs (autism) from the Eskinang Pambata Special Education (SPED) School.

"We made dragonboat as a platform to converge the children with disabilities and abled kids to play on a common playground and it was possible," said PADS Adaptive Dragon Boat Racing Team Manager John Paul "JP" Maunes. "The children's right to play and participation is what we really emphasize in this program. We teach them the value of respect, sportmanship and playing with disabled kids will help them understand disability at an early age.

Maunes said the project is initiated by the PADS paddlers themselves.

"Happy mi kay ang mga PWD (person's with disability) paddlers mismo man gud nag-initiate ani na project. Gusto sila mo-share sa ilahang experience ug they believe that dragonboat will also create a huge impact in the lives of the kids tungod sa ilaha pud na experience."

PADS, the country's only cross-disability dragonboat team, serves as the kids' mentors that trains them four times a week at the Marina Seaview in Lapu-Lapu City. The program has been running for more than month already since it was first launch last month.

Maunes said majority of these kids from the slum are out-of school youth and they were once used to be their spectators before when they do their trainings.

"Kining mga bataa sa una kung mag-training mi magtapok g'yud na sila kay kini sila mga nagpuyo ubos sa bridge ug nakita namo na curious kaayo sila sa bugsay mao nga amoa silang gitapok and now they are training as part of PADS junior paddlers," said Maunes. "We made them part of the program aron mapalayo sila sa dautan ug sa bisyo ug ma-encourage sila nga mo-eskwela.

Seeing the abled kids and children with special needs train and play together is a breakthrough for their side, according to Maunes adding that the parents' involvement has also made a huge impact in this project.

"Amoa gi-involve ang mga parents nila. Gipa-monitor namo ilahang performance sa school and household chores. Happy kaayo mi kay mismo ang mga parents pa ang modala nila sa training," said Maunes."Happy mi na na-embrace g'yud sa community ang programa sa PADS Adaptive Sports that sports is for all."

The junior paddlers will soon be PADS' representatives to future international dragonboat competitions in the youth category.

"They are our future paddlers. Hopefully we can send a youth team to race and represent Cebu one day," said Maunes.