Charity Details - Special Olympics Thailand
Special Olympics Thailand Video
The criteria for the 2009 charity is a Thai-based organization which supports underprivileged or disadvantaged athletes and to encourage sports development.
The funds raised from the ESPN STAR Sports charity weekend will be used to bring students to the Southern Thailand regional Special Olympic Games held in Surathani on 17-19 June – giving these competitors a chance to qualify for the National Games and then potentially the World Special Olympics.
Currently, the three southern most provinces are not able to participate due to lack of funding and corporate sponsorship in that part of the country. We hope to raise enough funds to bring competitors from these three provinces to the games in Surathani, as well as supporting competitors from Phuket.
Special Olympics Thailand
Special Olympics Thailand (SOT) is a non-profit national organization responsible for providing year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Thailand, thereby giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness.
Started in 1987, there are currently 14,645 athletes from 136 schools nationwide participating in SOT’s programme, with the involvement of 805 coaches (of which 58 are certified trainers), 385 clinical /health volunteers and 854 general volunteers (* 2007 statistics ).
Unified Sports Programme
Of the various programmes that SOT has organized, Unified Sports Competition is the latest sports related activity that has been introduced to the Thai Special Olympics community.
Special Olympics Unified Sports® is an initiative that combines approximately equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes and athletes without intellectual disabilities (called Partners) on sports teams for training and competition. Age and ability matching of athletes and Partners is defined on a sport-by-sport basis.
The concept of combining athletes with intellectual disabilities and those without was first introduced in the mid-1980s to provide another level of challenge for higher ability athletes and to promote equality and inclusion. Today, the initiative includes virtually all Special Olympics sports, and Unified Sports competitions are an important part of Special Olympics World Games, as well as local, state/provincial and National Games.
Unified Sports enables Special Olympics athletes to:
- learn new sports
- develop higher-level sports skills
- have new competition experiences
- experience meaningful inclusion (each athlete is ensured of playing a valued role on the team) socialize with peers and form friendships (the initiative provides a forum for positive social interaction between teammates and often leads to long-lasting friendships), and
- participate in their communities and have choices outside of Special Olympics. Unified Sports programs often are initiated by community partners and schools. These partnerships help further include athletes in their community
Laguna Phuket CSR Mission Statement
‘Developing Sustainable Communities’
Laguna Phuket is a community nestled within a community – a network of hotels, residential properties, restaurants, services and leisure facilities that provides a wealth of jobs, and a consummate lifestyle for local, regional and international audiences. In delivering this service a focus on triple bottom line performance touches all our stakeholders in our quest to deliver environmental and social benefits alongside a corresponding increase in economic performance. Our integration with the local society creates memorable, vibrant experiences for guests and staff whilst synchronously developing relationships, security and a model for sustainable tourism.
This charity event and golf packages are created and managed by Laguna Phuket.
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