“Children with severe impairments usually spend most of their time at home and are not engaged with any activities. However, sport helps them become independent to some extent, have more self-confidence and be less dependent on their parents. We help those children become more active. Sport heals people and children can benefit from any physical activity”, Daniela Sadikova who a PhD student majoring kinesiotherapy at the National Sports Academy in Sofia told Radio Bulgaria. She holds adaptive swimming lessons to children with various impairments. She works under that project together with Boyana Kotseva - a physical education teacher and PhD student majoring Adaptive Skiing. Due to their project the two Bulgarian girls won the contest for social entrepreneurs organized by the Reach for Change foundation and NOVA Tv.

“This is a competition for young people who try to find a solution to various problems of the children in our society” Boyana says.

“Our project envisages practices in adaptive swimming and medical gymnastics. We want to expand our activities and include adaptive skiing in our schedule, in order to provide medical activities to children with impairments, spinal deformities and obesity in all seasons. We are also planning to launch four camps per yea r- one in each season”, Daniela Sadikova adds.

 “It wasn't easy to win that contest”, Daniela and Boyana contend and add:

“The competition was severe. A total of 213 projects took part at the contest and only 5 managed to reach the semifinal stage. It cost us a lot of efforts during that semifinal to make people recognize our cause. We did it to the final, because we persuaded the jury that our idea was worthy.”

All projects presented at the contest were directed towards children. There were two juries at the contest - the first one was formed by children only and the second one consisted of managers of the Reach for Change foundation from all European countries, Daniela specifies. Daniela and Boyana won the contest thanks to the categorical support of the children's jury. How Daniela and Boyana managed to earn the sympathy of the children? Here is what Boyana told Radio Bulgaria:

“We made them imagine how they would feel if they were in the shoes of the children with disabilities such as those with visual impairment. We played several games where they felt the emotion of trusting someone else. The children's jury was convinced that sport helps children with disabilities integrate easier in society.”

Boyana also said that it was great pleasure for her to see that her efforts yield the necessary results and that her pupils acquire new skills. In her view, the children with disabilities have low self-confidence, because they are usually advised to be careful. However, I feel great when I see that those children learn to fulfill their goals through sports, Boyana Kotseva specifies.

Sport also enables children with impairments to have social life. Boyana and Daniela learnt at meetings with parents of disabled children about the problems related to their social inclusion:

“We learned that although some children and parents have the opportunity to do new things, it is very difficult to persuade them to do something new, because they feel isolated. Parents should also change their attitude and perception. Most of them do not believe that their children can do something different. They must encourage their children to be more active”, Daniela contends.

In Boyana's view, the state can also help children with disabilities live a brighter and easier life:

“The authorities must improve the infrastructure, which does not cost a lot of money. However, that infrastructure must be of good quality. For instance, if the institutions decide to make a loading ramp for disabled children, it must be built properly. Moreover, the state should make it clear that those children are members of our society and provide social support to all children with disabilities.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov