1,200 disabled take part in special sports festival

JAKARTA (JP): A one-day sports and recreation festival is planned for tomorrow for 1,200 disabled people and their families.

The event, organized by the Special Olympics Foundation of Indonesia, will take place in Kuningan, South Jakarta, organizers said Tuesday.

The activities, including marches, workouts, performances and a bazaar, will begin at 7 a.m. in Taman Patra Kuningan and on Jl. Patra Kuningan XI.

It is being held in conjunction with the International Day for the Disabled, which falls on Dec. 5, and National Society Solidarity Day on Dec. 20. The festival is also being held to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the Asih Budi Foundation, a foundation for the disabled which is also organizing the event. Asih Budi was set up Dec. 28, 1957.

Participants, particularly those with mental disabilities, come from the city and surrounding areas. The event is for 16- year-olds upwards.

Retno Astoeti Aryanto, the Special Olympics Foundation chairwoman, said sports could improve participants' physical conditions, besides teaching them sportsmanship.

She said sports activities are also a medium for participants, especially children, to adjust in society.

The Special Olympics Foundation of Indonesia, established in 1989, organizes sports activities and competitions once every two years for the disabled.

It also organizes sports competitions on a national scale every four years prior to the Special Olympics International Games. The local games provide talent scouting for the international event.

Ten out of the 15 participants won gold medals at the First Asia Pacific Regional Special Olympics Games held in Shanghai, China, in November this year.

Last year, in the World Special Olympics in Connecticut, the United States, 13 of the 27 athletes carried gold medals home.

The foundation also trains the mentally disabled athletes and provides coaching clinics throughout the year.

Minarni Soedaryanto, a former national badminton champion who is also a member of the foundation, urged other former athletes to volunteer for the foundation's program.

The foundation's patron, Sri Sumarsih Surjadi Soedirdja, the wife of the governor, pointed out the lack of legal rights for the disabled here.

"All countries in Southeast Asia, except for Indonesia, have established laws which protect the rights of the disabled," she said. Sri said she hoped the draft law on the disabled would be ratified next year by the House of Representatives.

The Ministry of Social Affairs revealed that 0.4 percent of the country's population have mental disabilities, with IQs under 70.

Retno said many parents here do not treat their mentally disabled children properly. Unable to accept their children's condition, the parents tend to isolate the children and overprotect them, as well as underestimate their abilities, she said.

The children are often kept in the house because the cost of educating mentally retarded children is quite high, she added.

There are 56 schools for mentally disabled children in the city. The schools divide the students into two sections: those who can be taught basic subjects, and those who can only be trained in survival skills, such as eating or tying shoes.

The city also has three homes for the mentally disabled, but Retno said she did not encourage sending children to these homes.

"What they really need is love and attention from their families," Retno, who also has a mentally disabled child, said. (02)