Fruitful Program Boosts China's Special Olympics CauseA fruitful Special Olympics China Millennium March (SOCMM) program has helped the most populous nation on planet move steadily with their ambitious cause of bringing up to 500,000 mentally disabled countrymen into the Special Olympics family.The SOCMM, initiated last May by a joint effort including Special Olympics China (SOC), has proved to be a great success so far. Under the program, 75,000 mentally retarded people have been engaged, recording an encouraging increase of 50% from the previous figure. Timothy Shriver, President and Chief Executive Officer of International Special Olympics, praised what SOC has done as " fantastic" at a celebrating ceremony here on Sunday. Ihe success served to be a spirits boost for a country registering a total of 11.82 million mentally retarded people, of which only a tiny part of 50,000 had the Special Olympics experience. Buoyed up by these productive activities, China has been ever confident pushing ahead with its five-year Special Olympics plan which aims to take in 500,000 "special" athletes. The SOCMM has successfully conducted six training seminars, where as many as 270 mentally "slow" people were taught coaching and administration skills. Furthermore, a national training center for the special athletes has been established in Shenzhen, Southern China, while another national winter sports training center is to be built in the northern Heilongjiang Province. On the financial aspect, the SOCMM has been able to collect cash, materials and service which valued at around 14 million RMB. "I am satisfied with what the Special Olympics China has done... ..the progress so far is fantastic," said Shriver. He added that based on the success of the SOCMM, the Special Olympics is planning a similar march in South Africa. "We are trying to replicate the effort (here) to bring the awareness to South Africa, to launch campaign to recruit new athletes, to show families and the general public that people with mental disabilities can through sports become members of society. "We are trying to take the experiences from China and take it to the rest of the world," he added. |
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