What We Do
Dignity, acceptance, and a chance to reach one’s potential – these are human rights worth promoting for everyone. Since 1968, Special Olympics has been bringing one message to the world: people with intellectual disabilities can and will succeed if given the opportunity.
Building Skills. Basketball star Dikembe Mutombo leads a skills clinic for Special Olympics athletes in China.
Shooting with the Stars
This past summer, NBA stars Dikembe Mutombo, Jason Terry and Brandon Rush went to Beijing, China, to run basketball clinics with local people with intellectual disabilities. The three stars drilled and coached 60 athletes in basketball skills, then divided up to form teams and play a quick game with the athletes.
Only a few years ago, the idea of having international basketball stars giving skills clinics for people with intellectual disabilities in China was unheard of. In China--as in many countries--people with intellectual disabilities were isolated and hopeless, with no way to channel their energy. Special Olympics East Asia teamed up with Basketball Without Borders to make the clinics an annual event.
And this story is not unique; Special Olympics is transforming lives all around the world.
Creating a World of Acceptance
Through year-round sports training and competition, Special Olympics empowers individuals with intellectual disabilities in more than 180 countries. Special Olympics often is the only place where they have an opportunity to participate in their communities and develop belief in themselves. Many live lives of neglect and isolation, hidden away or socially excluded from full participation in schools or society. Transforming the athlete, Special Olympics sports are a gateway to empowerment, competence, acceptance and joy.
But we also transform their communities. When people see Special Olympics athletes in action, they see their humanity, their joy in competition, their pride and their potential, and they begin to believe in a different kind of world – a world in which everyone is respected and included.
Special Olympics is Changing Lives
In Afghanistan, it means the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games floor hockey team was honored with congratulations from the highest levels of government as a tribute to their success. In Romania, it means children who were solitary and forgotten now participate in sports training and interact regularly with the community outside their institutions. In the United States, it means the young girl who was bullied or isolated is chosen as homecoming queen. In China, it means people who were hidden away in their homes now receive vocational and literacy training at thousands of Sunshine Centers across the provinces.
Changing Attitudes, One Person at a Time
We are also a catalyst for societal change, fostering community building around the globe. We are a leader in diversity and tolerance education, bringing young people with and without intellectual disabilities together in our youth and schools outreach. We are a research leader, partnering with governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector to develop new ways to include people with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of society. We are the world’s largest public health organization serving people with intellectual disabilities, offering free health screenings to the world’s most neglected populations. And we are the fastest-growing grass-roots volunteer movement on the planet, with the potential to improve the quality of life for 200 million people with intellectual disabilities – 3 percent of the global population.
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