JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Workshop - IBSA Judo - Africa Development and Introduction of Judo for Blind
Athletes in Rwanda: NPC Gymnasium, Amahoro National Stadium of Remera(28th February and 1st to 4th March, 2018: Kigali, Rwanda)

Report to the President of National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda Mr. MUREMA Jean
Baptiste, to Mr. Christian Bishyika President of Rwanda Judo Federation, Mr. Jean Damascene
NSENGIYUMVA Executive Secretary of National Union of Disability’s Organisations in Rwanda(NUDOR)
cc to: Mr. David Stanley the International BSA Judo Africa project leader, Mr. Sondisa Magajana the IBSA Judo
Africa Coordinator, and Prof. Randeep Rakwal, Tsukuba International Academy for Sport Studies (TIAS)-Facultyof Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba (and Internship Committee, Chair)

BACKGROUND
From 1st to 4th March, 2018 in Rwanda held a four-day workshop on the introduction anddevelopment of Judo for Blind Athletes in Africa. This initiative was created by a TIAS student(Mr. Celestin Nzeyimana, 3rd batch) inspired by Jigoro Kano’s views on Applied Olympic
Education (Celestin, being part of the Olympic and Paralympic Education module at TIAS, isbeing taught by 3 expert Sensei’s, Prof. Hisashi Sanada, Chair, TIAS; Dr. Yukinori Sawae,
Adapted-Sport & Sport for All, and Dr. Alexis Lyras, Olympism for Humanity- on various
aspects of Olympic and Paralympic Education).
Celestin’s visit to the Kodokan museum in Tokyo was a great opportunity to know/learn more
about Jigoro Kano, his writings, philosophy and principles on physical education through Judo.
In his visit to Kodokan (November 2017), Celestin met international blind Judo players andcoaches during a training camp. He then visited the Japan Blind Judo Federation office andthereafter he had a meeting with Mr. Kenichi Shoshida, the Manager in the President’s Office of
Kodokan Judo Institute. The later shared much information on Blind Judo organization and heencouraged the development of Blind Judo in Africa as one of the success of Tokyo 2020
Paralympic Games.
Guided by Prof. Randeep Rakwal (UT-TIAS), a
short-term project of introducing Judo for Blindin Rwanda was prepared (written) and it waspresented to the Rwanda National Paralympic
Committee and to the International Blind Sport
Association (IBSA) – Judo. As result from the
project proposal, a workshop on the introductionof Judo for Blind Athletes in Africa wasconfirmed to be hosted for the first time of its
kind on the African continent.
According to the IBSA, Judo is a popular sport
for athletes with a visual impairment. It has
Figure 1: Photo with Kiyoshi Wakabayashi and Yoshiyasu
Endo of the Japan Judo Federation for the Visually Impaired featured in all five editions of the IBSA Worldndand Celestin (2 from left).
Championships and Games. Moreover, Blind
Judo has been a Paralympic sport since the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games. Women's Judo wasadded to the Paralympic Games program for the first time in 2004 at the Athens Games.
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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

However, the Blind Judo is not developed in Africa at all. Till recently, very few Africancountries have introduced this sport. For example, during the last Paralympic Games in Rio deJaneiro 2016, only one African Country participated (Algeria) with 3 Judokas out of 132 fromaround 50 participating countries.
This is the main reason that Rwanda took the first step by hosting this Introductory Workshop
of Blind Judo in order to collaborate with other African Countries in promoting this sport for thewelfare of persons with visual impairment and to contribute to the visibility of African Blind
Athletes on the International scene, especially during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, andbeyond. Therefore, this report will describe all activities of the workshop.
Workshop Schedule:
Figure 2: Calendar of activities from the arrival day to the last day of the workshop

DETAILED WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES
28th February – Participants Arrival Day and Registration
Wednesday 28th February: The arrival date for all invited participants. Two (2) IBSA Judo
Trainers arrived on scheduled time; Mr. David Stanley - IBSA Judo Africa Project Manager and
Mr. Ian Johns - IBSA Judo Educator and Coaching Director, both from United Kingdom. Other
International participants who arrived on that day were – 2 participants from the Republic
Democratic of Congo, 1 from Uganda, 1 from Kenya, 1 from Congo, and 1 from South Africa.
The local participants were 15 (8 from schools and organizations of children with Visual
Impaired and 7 from Rwanda Judo Federation, the IJF member). The total number of 21 African
participants was present. The 3 participants from Benin and Nigeria were invited; unfortunately
they had challenges related to flight connections which did not allow their participation.

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Below is a copy of the attendance list:

Figure 2: Images of the attendance record of the participants.

Day 1 – Workshop Activities (Thursday, 1st March, 2018)
Thursday, 1st March, saw the opening remarks and welcoming speeches by Sport Authorities andLeadership of the National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda. This morning session was
coordinated by Celestin Nzeyimana, the NPC Rwanda Executive Director and the TIAS student,
who introduced all participants and explained in detailed the time-table for the workshop
activities and internal rules for the 4-days training.

Figure 3: Celestin from TIAS Introducing the Judo trainers from IBSA.

The welcome speech was addressed by Mr. William SAFARI, Chairman of the Rwanda
National Blind Sport Association – NBSA, and the Vice President of National Paralympic
Committee of Rwanda. To quote“…it is with great pleasure to us for having this new sport of Judo for blind is introduced here in
Rwanda. Currently we are under pressure from them asking for more sporting opportunities. The
only sport that Rwanda has now is Goal Ball but it is played by few male clubs. This individual
sport will help us to involve more men and women with visual impairment in sport activities.”
Following his message to the participants, he also decided totake part in the Judo training as a player (he is also visually
impaired – B1 = total blindness). He now has a dream of
becoming a Judo Paralympian.

Figure 4: William Safari Vice President of NPC Rwanda and thechairman of NBSA Rwanda addressing to the participants.

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Next, from the Ministry of Sport and Culture, Mr. Emmanuel BUGINGO, Sport Director, wasinvited to officially open this workshop; and he responded positively. He was present for the
opening ceremonies of the workshop. In his opening speech, he thanked NPC Rwanda for its
work in creating sporting opportunities for persons with all types of disabilities in Rwanda andhe encouraged the participants in workshop to take the opportunity and develop this new sport intheir respecting countries. He concluded by saying that the Ministry of Sport and Culture will
support the development of Blind Judo and any other sport initiatives aiming at helping theinclusion of persons with disabilities in Rwanda.
Photos from the opening ceremony of the workshop:

Figure 5: Emmanuel Bugingo, Sport Director in
Ministry of Sports and Culture giving opening
speech to the participants.

Figure 6: David Stanley from IBSA Judo introducing
himself to the participants.

Figure 3: Group photo of participants after the opening session.

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Everybody participated in all 3-days activities, and many of these participants had never known
Judo before and most had no idea on the Judo for the visually impaired. Seminar was initiatedwith an introduction to IBSA and the aims of the Africa Judo Project. Next, the trainers showedvideos of mainstream Judo and informed them of the basic rules of the sport, i.e., how to win,like throwing, holding, strangulation and arm locks. Also, the talk covered the scoring systemand the basic way to introduce Judo to players within their countries; all the participants were in
Judo-gi and were doing all of these exercises and training methods for coaching the visually
impaired.

Figure 4: Mr. Ian Johns, coach of the British Judo Team of the visual impaired athletes and IBSA Educator.

Participants were surprised by the performance of persons with visual impairment. One ofparticipants said: “I can’t believe this. I could not imagine that persons with visual impairment
can do Judo on that level. While I was watching the video, I was thinking that they are seeing but
I confirmed that they don’t see after the match when they were oriented off the ring…”, and mostof participants shared common feeling that if you do not see you cannot do the sport of martial
arts like Judo. This morning session removed that negative thinking and they experienced
themselves that it is possible. Mr. Kennedy Ndungi from Kenya has a partial visual impairment.
He was invited to participate in thisworkshop as a coach and player at thesame time. He said: “I was not able towatch videos because I have a low
vision but when it came to thepractice, I enjoyed very much thesport. I doubted whether or not I canplay Judo, now I find it very easy andnot risky as I was thinking before
coming here for workshop.”
Following photos show evening
activities during practice session:
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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Figure 9: The participants enjoying the sport of Judo for the visually impaired. (Coaches, Organizers and athletes).

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

Day 2 – Workshop Activities (Friday, 2nd March, 2018)
The second day covered the IBSA refereeing rules and showed the videos of contests from
Germany and Brazil. All participants were impressed with the new way to bring players to thecenter of the contest area. In the afternoon, trainers demonstrated some basic throws andmovement patterns for the players to understand how to throw when moving.
Day 3 – Workshop Activities (Saturday, 3rd March, 2018)
On the third day, trainers and participants discussed on the topic related to how the IBSA, IJF
and the International Paralympic Committee - IPC would like to involve more African countries
to get involved in Judo and increase more players and referees at the highest level so that they
may be able to attend the Paralympic Games. Some of the participating persons did refereeing
mock contests to understand the importance of the referee in the control of Blind and Deaf
players.

Figure 10: Images of demonstration on the throwing techniques.

All participants received a participation CERTIFICATE, and they were very happy to have theopportunity to participate in this workshop.

Figure 5: Photo of all participants after the Certificate Ceremony at Amahoro National Stadium of Remera- NPC Gymnasium, Kigali, Rwanda.

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

THE 1st IBSA JUDO AFRICAN MEETING
On Saturday the 3rd of March, 2018 from 5 pm at the Five to Five Hotel, Remera, Kigali, theNational Paralympic Committee of Rwanda with the National Blind Sports Association of
Rwanda (NBSA) hosted the General meeting as the last section of the workshop. The meeting
objective was to put all Africa countries together on a platform in order to talk about moving
forward, and to exchange on some of the first steps they will have to take in order to startparticipating in the International Competitions. In the meeting, the following persons wereinvited and present: the President of National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda, the President of
Rwanda Judo Federation and the Chairman of National Blind Sports Association of Rwanda.
Representatives from African National Paralympic Committee of Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Congo
Democratic and South Africa were also present in the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Mr.
David Stanley, the IBSA Judo Africa Project Manager.
On the point of the development of Judo for visually impaired people, all participating countries
agreed to collaborate and to work together by building partnership and good relationship with
their local Judo Federations, and members of the International Judo Federation. The Judo
Federation should accept to include visually impaired players in their Judo clubs and to the
National Programs. Participants raised a need of referees for Visually Impaired Judo. It was then,that the meeting decided that before any championship, a training seminar for Visually Impaired
Referees would be organized for those referees attending the championships. The same to any
local development program of Judo, the visually impaired would not be forgotten.
Mr. David Stanley informed the meeting that there are different opportunities for thedevelopment of Judo in Africa. He said that the International Judo Federation through its
members has enough funding. Countries need to submit projects. In addition to that, there is
Kodokan Judo Institute, which is the headquarters of Judo worldwide. He informed the meetingthat they are potential partners for developing Judo in African countries especially about Judomaterials such as ‘Tatami’ and Judo-gi, as well as trainings of referees and coaches. The meetinghas appointed Mr. David Stanley to act as the chairman for the African Countries, as this wasseen as part of his role as IBSA Africa Project Manager. Also, Mr. Sondisa Magajana fromSouth Africa was appointed to be the regional representative of the Southern and central regionsof Africa.
Following are some photos from the meeting:

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

School (for the Visually Impaired) Visit
Sunday 4th March, 2018 was dedicated to the visit of a primary and secondary school, at HVP
Rwamagana in Eastern Province, for children with visual impairment. A delegation of fivepersons visited the school. The delegation comprised: Celestin Nzeyimana, Executive Secretaryof NPC Rwanda and TIAS student, Mr. Safari William, Chairman of National Blind Sports
Association of Rwanda and the Vice President of NPC Rwanda, Mr. John Bosco
Muhamyangabo, Marketing Officer from NPC Rwanda, and Mr. Stanley David and Ian Johns
from IBSA Judo.
The main purpose of the visit was to see how Judo can help young persons with visual
impairment in Rwanda, as the only other sport they could do was Goal Ball. The visited schoolhas 168 children who all live on site at the school. Everybody at school was waiting for this visit
and the guests received a warm welcome from the headmaster of the school. Following the visit
to the school sport facilities, where the Goal Ball pitch is the only sports facility and that are aconcrete pitch, it was realized Judo cannot be played on it.
On the other hand, the school has a meeting hall which may be used, once the school has the‘Tatamis’. That hall was used as a meeting with the guests explaining and exchanging on the
sport of Judo to the children. Following an introduction by the school Head Master, Mr. Ian
Johns and Mr. David Stanley explained what Judo is and how it is played by visually impaired
persons. Children were very excited to hear about the new sport and they kept asking manyquestions such as whether fans are allowed or to make noise while playing Judo, because formost of the Blind Sports, fans are quite so as to help the players to follow the bell-ball direction.
They were happy to hear that it is allowed for Judo. This Q&A session lasted around 30 minutes,
and from there it was obvious that many of these children wanted to do Judo; but it was always
about the costs. NBSA together with the NPC of Rwanda ensured the school that they are goingto make more advocacies on how Judo can be started at this school although among theparticipants in Judo workshop, one was from this very school. IBSA also had some commitments
in regards to the Judo equipment’s/items which can help the school in introduction of Judo for
Blind as another sporting opportunity for these students who do not play Goal Ball.
Following Photos show the visit at HVP Gatagara School:

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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

This activity was the last on the agenda of the Workshop in Rwanda. All participants went backhome on this day, with the commitment to start Judo for Visually Impaired Persons. This
will help enhance the visibility of African athletes in world championships and the Paralympic
Games of Tokyo 2020 and beyond.
Recommendations from the Workshop:
From this workshop, it is recommended that:
1. African NPCs have to collaborate with National Judo Federations so that the inclusion ofvisually impaired persons is facilitated,
2. A need of organizing more ‘training of trainers’ and ‘referees’ of Judo for Blind athletes.
3. IBSA and IJF have to support the development projects of Judo for Blind in Africancountries,
4. Annual Championships for the Judo for Blind should be organized at the national level; and,during the National Championships, the NFs should organize events for Visually Impaired
alongside the non-Visually Impaired in order to make people aware and to promote it,
5. Regional Championships should be organized in this year ‘2018’; one in the South African
region and the other one in East and Central Africa region,
6. The IBSA African Judo Championships should be organized in 2019 and 2020. This will
increase the chance of qualification of African Judokas to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic
Games and beyond,
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JUDO for BLIND ATHLETES – Towards a TIAS LEGACY PROJECT in RWANDA

2018

7. Africa should have a member delegate, Sport Commissioner and Referee commissioner in
the IBSA Judo committee. This will help Africa to have a voice on international platform
with other continents. In reality, there is no African delegate in IBSA Judo, only appointed
person from UK as the Africa Project Leader,
8. Africa should have a communication platform such as a Website, a Facebook page and othersocial media, which may help in collecting and sharing information about the IBSA Judo in
Africa.
CONCLUSION
In summary, the workshop was very successful and all expected objectives were achieved. It is believedthat the three-days of training will change the life of many persons with visual impairment in Africa, and
who will play Judo for the first time. In addition to that, African Judokas will be included in future WorldChampionships and Paralympic Games through this type of development program. Thanks to the
Tsukuba International Academy for Sport Studies (TIAS), University of Tsukuba for the inspiration ofthis very first project of introducing Blind Judo in Africa; and the follow-up by writing a research article
on this workshop. The first step is complete now (introduction), more steps need to be taken(development), and there is a feeling that the University of Tsukuba (especially TAIIKU-Faculty of
Health and Sport Sciences) will increase its involvement in the development of Judo, through the capacity
building of coaches and referees for example, through the legacy of educating the world through sport ofJudo by Jigoro Kano, the founder of University of Tsukuba and the father of Judo.
Without the financial support, this workshop should not take place. Therefore, I wish to deeply thank the
National Paralympic Committee of Rwanda (NPC Rwanda) that paid all financial cost related to thehosting this workshop including, accommodation of all participants, food and local transport fees.
The sport is now introduced, let the persons with visual impairment - men and women from Africa - enjoyit.
Thank you.

Dated: April, 16th, 2018 (Edited, May 7th, 2018, Prof. Rakwal)

Signed:Mr. Celestin Nzeyimana
Project Coordinator – TIAS Student (3rd Batch)
Master’s Program in Sport and Olympic Studies,
Master’s Program in Health and Sport Sciences,
Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences,
University of Tsukuba,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

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