B/A disabled basketball team beat their Ashanti counterparts

Brong-Ahafo physically challenged basketball team defeated their visiting Ashanti Region representative side 6-2 in a special Independence Anniversary friendly wheel-chair basketball match at Nkoranza on Friday.

The encounter organised by the Brong-Ahafo Chapter of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled (BACGFD) and sponsored by New Vision for Disability Incorporated (NVDI), an Atlanta-based benevolent Organisation in the United States of America.

It was watched by hundreds of spectators including Mr. Richard Yaw Soro, a Ghanaian founder and President of NVDI, Madam Stella Amoatemaa, Nkoranza Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and Mr. Matthew Annor Kudom, Chairman of the Brong-Ahafo Chapter of the Federation.

Another significant part of the competition was that it coincided with the 30th birthday of Miss Zinabu Issah, one of the players of the Ashanti Region team. The organising body of the match consequently presented some crates of soft drinks to wish her well.

Earlier addressing the executive and players of both teams Mr. Soro, who is also a native of Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region indicated the Organisation had decided to support people with disabilities and the marginalized in Africa so that they would not become liabilities in their communities.

He added the Organisation would create jobs for members of the Federation and also support the education of those who would be in schools so the latter group would not be denied education.

Mr. Soro, himself physically-handicapped, stressed since “disability is not inability”, NVDI would make everything possible to help disability persons in Africa, especially Ghana to enable them to develop their God-given talents to improve upon their living standards.

Mr. Soro recalled the history of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled about 20 years ago, saying he spearheaded the formation of the Nkoranza Branch that time and encouraged his colleagues to learn trades and vocations to advance their livelihood.

He paid tribute to Madam Theresa Nyarko-Fofie a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza for establishing a Craft Production Centre for the disabled in the area, and expressed gratitude to Rural Youth Association, a German Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for funding the Centre.

Madam Amoatemaa, the MCE commended the organizers of the wheel-chair basketball match and expressed the hope that the programme would create the public awareness that “disability does not mean incapability”.

Mr. Kudom was grateful to the NVDI for promoting solidarity between disabled persons in the two regions through the organisation of the wheel-chair basketball match.