BP partners with Agitos Foundation to develop para-sports
22.12.2015Projects in Singapore and Angola have already benefitted with Georgia to follow in the first agreement of its kind for the Agitos Foundation.
© • IPC
“We are thankful to welcome BP as a partner to help strengthen the impact of the Grant Support Programme, which has already had a huge impact in developing para sport around the world.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced that BP has extended its support of the Paralympic Movement by becoming an official partner of the Agitos Foundation’s Grant Support Programme (GSP) which provides financial support to IPC members to develop para-sports around the world.
By becoming the IPC’s first international partner to support its development arm, BP will fund para-sport projects in Singapore, Angola and Georgia.
BP’s support has already benefitted athletics coaches, classifiers and officials from African Portuguese speaking countries after a series of courses and education sessions were held in conjunction with the Angolan Paralympic Committee in late July.
At December’s 2015 ASEAN Para Games in Singapore, BP funding was used to organise an IPC Swimming national classifier workshop and provide education for coaches and officials.
In Georgia, BP’s support will help to raise awareness of the Paralympic Movement through Paralympic School Days, a Paralympic Festival and three photo exhibitions in 2015 and 2016. Georgian athletes will appear in the media to increase their profile ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Georg Schlachtenberger, Director of the Agitos Foundation, said: “We are thankful to welcome BP as a partner to help strengthen the impact of the Grant Support Programme, which has already had a huge impact in developing para sport around the world.
“We hope that we can continue this partnership long into the future to further expand the reach and effectiveness of our programmes in the years to come.”
“BP is proud to build on its existing partnership with the IPC through the Agitos Foundation Grant Support Programme,” said Peter Henshaw, BP Group Head of Communications. “This collaboration in grassroots development of disabled sports will help to develop tomorrow’s Paralympians whilst complementing the support we’re providing today to elite athletes in these countries.”
Launched in 2013, the GSP aims to support IPC members in introducing programmes that develop athletes and help them to reach their own organisational goals.
In the last three years, the GSP has invested nearly EUR 2 million in 93 para sport development projects being run by the IPC membership, benefitting thousands of people around the globe.
The Agitos Foundation recently announced another partnership, this time with the Foundation for Global Sport Development who are supporting projects with National Paralympic Committees in Benin, Tanzania, and Guinea as well as IPC Powerlifting.
