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10 February 2016
Sport for Tomorrow Consortium

Sport for Tomorrow supports the promotion of the Paralympic Movement in Indonesia

Photo courtesy of the Sport for Tomorrow Consortium

On 3–4 February, the Japan Sport Council held a sporting event to promote the Paralympic
Movement entitled “Para-sport Quest” at the Special School for Children with a Visual
Impairment in Bandung, Indonesia. The aim of the event was to enhance mutual understanding
between students with and without a visual impairment and to raise awareness of and interest inParalympic events and other sports for persons with an impairment. The event was held as partof the Sport for Tomorrow programme, an initiative to promote the power of sport, and wasattended by a total of 48 primary school students who learnt about para-sports and tried out
para-sports for themselves.
The overriding objective of the event is to promote the Paralympic Movement and involvement insports for people with an impairment. Indonesia was selected as the country in which toimplement this programme as the 2018 Asian Para Games will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia,and raising awareness of para-sports is considered vitally important in the lead up to the 2018Games and the Tokyo 2020 Games. Twenty-four students with a visual impairment and 24students without a visual impairment were divided into groups of six to embark on a “quest” todeepen their knowledge of para-sports. The students first enjoyed games as an icebreaker to getto know each other. They then tried out the Paralympic sport of Goalball to gain firsthandexperience of para-sports.
This event was organised by the Japan Sport Council – the secretariat of the Sport for Tomorrow
Consortium – with the support of The School of Special Education for Visual Impairment inBandung. Since October 2015, the Japan Sport Council and teachers from the school had held a■Sport for Tomorrow Consortium
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series of discussions focused on how to make this event an opportunity for students to learn
more about the power of sport, and encourage understanding of the fact that sport enables
anyone to connect with others and build self-esteem. Before the event, the Japan Sport Council
conducted a training session for the teachers to enable them to organise the event bythemselves. At the event, teachers encouraged students with and without a visual impairment toactively communicate and connect with each other by working in teams. This provided anopportunity for the students to enhance their mutual understanding, and the para-sport
experience enabled them to learn about the core Paralympic values: courage, determination,equality and inspiration. The Japan Sport Council hopes the “Para-sport Quest” event will serve
as a departure point for the further continuous promotion of para-sports and the Paralympic
Movement.
Mr. Yacobus Tri Bagio M. Pd, Head of Cooperation at the Bandung Special School for children
with visual impairment and third President of the Indonesian Blind Union (PERTUNI) praised theevent, commenting, “The children learnt a great deal by taking part in the event, and I wasgreatly impressed by the limitless potential of using the power of sport in education. The event
was very creative and I would like to share information about this event with other schools, sothat more schools can learn new ways to enhance mutual understanding among students bothwith and without impairments. I hope this event will continue to be organised in Indonesia withadjustments made to meet different needs.”
Ms. Ester Maory, Head of Curriculum, Division of Special Education at the West Java Education
Department, was also eager to further expand the event, “We have learnt an immense amountfrom the event, and the West Java Education Department is keen to make best use of the results.
We are already planning to distribute the event manual created by the Japan Sport Council to all
360 special schools for children with an impairment in West Java. I would like to start discussing
how similar events could be held at these schools when we hand this manual to the teachers andinspire them to learn about creative ways for students to experience the power of sport.”

For further inquiries, please contact:
Weber Shandwick
Email：sportfortomorrow@webershandwick.com
About the Sport for Tomorrow Programme:
The Sport for Tomorrow programme is one of the Japanese government’s commitments toleveraging the power of sport and further promoting the Olympic and Paralympic movements tocreate a brighter future for people throughout the world. The programme aims to implement avariety of sporting events and activities that will engage over ten million people in over 100
countries spanning a seven-year period, culminating in 2020. This will enable Japan to achieve
its objectives of providing assistance to developing countries, training future sports leaders at
new international sports academies, and protecting both athletes and the integrity of sport bypromoting global anti-doping initiatives. In 2014, the Sport for Tomorrow programme engaged
some 520,000 worldwide people through its various activities.
About the Sport for Tomorrow Consortium:
The Sport for Tomorrow Consortium was launched in August 2014 in order to align the■Sport for Tomorrow Consortium
http://www.sport4tomorrow.jp/

concerned organisations in both the public and private sectors with a common vision. Chaired byrepresentatives of the Japan Sports Agency, the newly established government agency within
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry ofForeign Affairs (MOFA), the consortium’s Steering Committee is made up of key members of theJapanese sporting community with the remit of making the optimal use of existing resources.
The Japan Sport Council serves as the consortium’s secretariat.
###■Sport for Tomorrow Consortium
http://www.sport4tomorrow.jp/