Agitos Foundation wins very first award in Ghana

“We are honoured to have been given this award, which shows that the profile of the Agitos Foundation and para-sport is growing very quickly.“

The Agitos Foundation, the development arm of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), won the Best Disability Sports Contributor at the Ghana Sports Excellence Awards in Accra on 9 January.

The award is the first ever to be won by the Foundation, which was officially launched at London 2012 to develop para-sport across the world.

Speaking of the award, Georg Schlachtenberger, Director of the Agitos Foundation, said: “We are honoured to have been given this award, which shows that the profile of the Agitos Foundation and para-sport is growing very quickly.

“To have been recognised in this way less than three years after the Agitos Foundation was officially launched is testament to the great relationships and links it has with National Paralympic Committees and a multitude of other partners.

“We will continue to work with the Ghana Paralympic Committee and countries all over the world to develop grass-roots sport, help organisations identify talent and improve the infrastructure for para-sport in all corners of the globe.”

The Agitos Foundation was viewed by the judging panel to “have and continue to demonstrate excellence and ground breaking talent in their work” ahead of fellow nominees the Right to Dream Academy and philanthropist Dan Arhin.

It provided support to a number of development initiatives in Ghana in 2014 through projects such as the Organisational Capacity (OCP) and Grant Support Programme (GSP).

Funding was provided through the GSP for a national festival to raise awareness of para-sport and identify new athletes, which took place in December.

The National Paralympic Committee has been involved in workshops designed to improve the organisation and resources within developing NPCs.

In February 2014, a member of the Ghanaian Paralympic Committee (GPC) received training in governance, management, leadership and sport promotion through the OCP.

They have since delivered sessions which have resulted in the development and implementation of a vision, mission statement and organisational structure for the GPC and engagement with sports practitioners from across the 10 regions, with work set to continue until 2016.

The 2014 Ghana Sports Excellence Awards were the first to take place and will now run annually to recognise exceptional sports icons and organisations in 36 categories.