The wheelchair basketball competition promoting inclusion in Nepal

With the slogan “Fair Game for Nepal: Make Disability Rights Real”, the league aims to enable youth with disabilities to advocate for their rights by creating new bridges with the wider society.

Overall 135 players from all over Nepal showcased their talents and skills on and off the court by building new relationships with peers, children and adults.

For example, Beg Tamang, a player with J.W.S.C. team and once again the runner up in the male division of the League, had the opportunity to sign autographs for students from primary education who were totally fascinated with his way of playing. This followed an awareness programme that also saw him playing in an exhibition game.

This is an example of how sports can make small, almost intangible and hard to measure yet powerful differences in society, laying the foundation for truly inclusive communities where those who are seen as “different” and at the margins can reclaim their due role and space.

If a bunch of eight-year-old students queue to meet Beg and ask for his autograph, it means they were totally mesmerised by the experience of meeting and watching youth living with disabilities excelling through sports.

Consequentially, their understanding of disabilities will unconsciously and naturally evolve according to values that promote integration rather than separation and isolation, equality rather than unjust and predetermined life outcomes.

A virtuous cycle would then kick off, where more and more people who have the opportunity to know youth like Beg, would ultimately reconsider their perspective and behaviours towards disability, finally realising how strong the tenets of social exclusion are rooted in the society.

As part of the process, youth living with disabilities would be able to get noticed and be visible and slowly, if properly supported, would be able to build and strengthen their sense of agency. In this way the league is really trying to create the conditions for a level playing field for youth living with physical disabilities.

This is the power of sports, a true platform where marginalised youth can showcase their skills and emerge from the side-lines. Sport does not only offer a glimmer of hope and encouragement for youth like Beg, but it can truly unleash a new dynamism in addressing well entrenched practices and attitudes.

That’s why the league is not only about games on basketball courts but also interactions with students, training with youth that combine leadership, personal development with a strong focus on social inclusion. It is also about partnerships with the corporate sector because private companies hold, at least potentially, some very important ingredients that fuel the positive cycle that changes the status quo.

Sport is a propeller for new dynamics to happen at first, but we need to compliment it with other programmes aimed at supporting, guiding and encouraging those who are vulnerable and left behind by society.

The 3^rd Edition of the Turkish Airlines ENGAGE Empowering League has been a great success on many fronts, but the challenge continues: more games, more local youth without disabilities ready to coach and learn from peers with disabilities, more requests of autographs, more interactions and more internships. Change is slow and bumpy, but sport is an essential component to facilitate it.

Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, an NGO partnering with youths living with disabilities. He can be reached at [email protected]

 [This article has been edited by the Operating Team.]