Yesterday morning at Jules Ferry Elementary School in Nice, students from IAE, with the support of the city and the Valentin Haüy Association, raised children’s awareness about disability through sports. On the agenda: meeting with Nathalie Cuny, a para-athletics champion, as well as a tandem activity during which they were blindfolded.
“I couldn’t see anything, it was strange,” “I was scared,” “it’s like I was on a slope” were some of the reactions from a class of third and fourth graders after the tandem activity where they were blindfolded.
For a brief moment, they got to experience the daily life of visually impaired people. “For young children, disability often means being in a wheelchair. However, what we want them to understand today is that there are other forms of disability,” explains Thomas Gammella, the head of the Handisport’IAE project.
And often at this age, actions speak much louder than words. Marie Quimbel, principal of Jules Ferry School, states, “by sharing the experience of disability, children can better understand the daily challenges faced by these individuals.”
In addition to the tandem activity, the Handisport’IAE project also introduces children to other sports like basketball, climbing, tennis, etc., aiming to help them understand that one can engage in physical activities even if they have a disability.
The message is even more effectively conveyed through the testimony of Nathalie Cuny, who is visually impaired but above all a high-level para-athlete. She notably achieved the feat of running 150 km in 24 hours in May 2014.
Accompanied by her guide dog Gaia, she shares her daily life with the children. “The most frequent questions are how do you run if you can’t see, how do you get dressed, do your shopping, etc. The children are more comfortable and ask questions that adults wouldn’t dare to ask. It also helps them be less afraid of disabled people they might encounter in the street.”
Awareness mornings like this will be held throughout the year in nine different schools in Nice. A great initiative that, hopefully, will lead to a better understanding of the challenges faced by disabled people in the future.
by Désiré Teivao
