Special Olympics asks for aid from the public

The Special Olympics (SO) Maldives is an association that registered seven years ago with a big responsibility. They did so in order to bring those with special needs out into the community and give them the chance to compete in sports.

SO Maldives began their work in 2018, with them being able to make arrangements for all the children that trained under them. 

SO Maldives President Ibrahim Rameez (Ibbey) has stated that the number of athletes that train under them have increased. More sports categories have also been included.

"When Special Olympics Maldives began, we were able to manage the association by scraping together however much money we could. At the time, we didn't have a lot of coaches to train athletes either," said Ibrahim Rameez.

"However, the number of children has gone up. We even have more sports categories. So we need to find more coaches. Coaches will also work with some amount of compensation being gained. We are still unable to fit that arrangement into our budget."

He has also stated that they are unable to provide the small amount of wages to the coaches under their guidelines.

"The salary isn't even that big. But coaches will come on their own time if they get some form of compensation. Coaches here tend to work part time, with a salary of MVR 5,000. But we're having trouble setting that up as well," said Ibrahim Rameez.

Ibrahim Rameez, who has been around since the beginning of the association, said that they had decided not to take any sort of fees from the children who come to their association. He also said that the purpose of SO Maldives is to include special needs individuals in the community to represent and empower them in sports. He went on to say that something such as this must not have any fees tied to it.

"Our guidelines state that we are not to take any fees from the children," said Ibrahim Rameez.

He also stated that seven percent of the Maldivian population are special needs individuals as per statistics.

"Three percent out of the seven is under the supervision of the Special Olympics Maldives association. Even now, there are more children who have put their names on the list to join us," said Ibrahim Rameez.

The Maldivian badminton team is currently in Malaysia to partake in the Special Olympics Asia Pacific (SOAP) games that will begin today.

Ibrahim Rameez has stated that the government said that they will provide some of the funding for their travels and other expenses. However, the finances hadn't been allocated even before the team had left.

"We were able to send the children through the aid of benefactors. We sent a budget report to the Sports Ministry regarding the expenses for partaking in the SOAP games. They approved and sent a figure to the Finance Ministry that was much lower than the amount we requested. And we still haven't received that funding from the Finance Ministry," said Ibrahim Rameez.

"We still haven't secured the funding for miscellaneous expenses from the team in Malaysia."

There is worry that various programs and activities won't move forward due to this.

SO Maldives requests aid from the public in order to continue important community efforts without stopping. This is being done in order to facilitate their community efforts to continue sports and other social activities.

Those who want to offer help can call their official number: 7939944

Special Olympics Maldives account numbers:

USD: 7730000284793

MVR: 7730000284792