Program that introduces disabled children to sports extends to Middle East

From Sky News in the UK:

A unique London 2012 project which helps disadvantaged children around the world play sport has been launched in the Middle East.

International Inspiration is already helping children in five countries, and now a £25m project has been extended to Jordan.

It aims to use the power of sport to promote gender equality and social inclusion of marginalised children.

One of the children to be helped by the project is nine-year-old Mouayyed Badran (pictured), who has been confined to a wheelchair since birth.

Millions of children living in poverty around the world never even get to the starting line.

Mouayyed has spent his entire life in the crowded Souf Palestinian refugee camp in northern Jordan. His parents fled the West Bank in 1967 during the war.

The boy's mother Aziza said she hoped the project would improve their family's life.

"I want to see my son as an athlete or a teacher, to have a different wheelchair and to grow up and be able to support us and help us change our home," she said.

The scheme, a partnership between UK Sport, the British Council, UNICEF and the London organising committee, stems back to a promise made in 2005 when Lord Sebastian Coe bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

If London won the bid, he promised it would try to change the lives of 12 million children worldwide.

As well as Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, the Jordanian arm of International Inspiration will help disabled and displaced children, girls and those in juvenille justice centres.

International Inspiration Ambassador and 15 times Paralympic medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson travelled to Jordan for the launch of the project.

She told Sky News: "When I was growing up, sport for disabled people didn't get much coverage on television.

"I remember saying that I was going to be there one day, on the starting line with everyone else.

"Millions of children living in poverty around the world never even get to the starting line.

"If they are disabled, they've got even less chance. That's why I am so proud to be involved with International Inspiration."