Georgetown’s Amal Club Team and Best Buddies Qatar up for an Inclusive Sports Festival

On Thursday, March 26th, student members of the Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) Amal club and Best Buddies Qatar under the umbrella of Qatar foundation for social work co-sponsored the “Integration Sports Festival” event held at the HBKU Student Center in support of people with intellectual disabilities. The festival, which ran from 9 am until noon, was designed to bring together both people with and without intellectual disabilities through participation in sports activities in order to build community bridges and create opportunities for personal development and growth.

Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships and integrated employment. La’li Abu Alfain, Executive Director of Best Buddies Qatar, expressed her sincere appreciation for the positive collaboration with Georgetown University and in particular with all the students who are members of Amal club at the university. “This prominent and cooperative club is working to help us achieve the objectives of Best Buddies Qatar. They are contributing to providing an appropriate educational atmosphere which integrates people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and promotes social development opportunities to people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities.”

The 80 participants included both male and female students who took part in activities such as football, bowling, tug of war, hoop throwing, basketball, and volleyball. “Participants received weekly training for two hours in the GU-Q gymnasium,” said Khalid Abu Rumman, senior specialist of “Social Sports Integration” at Best Buddies Qatar, commenting on preparations for the day of competitive and socially beneficial engagement for a community with special needs that don’t receive the amount of attention they should.

“One of Georgetown University’s core values is ‘Women and Men for Others,’ and what better way to promote this value than by teaming up with the Best Buddies organization that was started on Georgetown’s main campus almost 26 years ago. Members of the Georgetown student club Amal have been working on accessibility and inclusivity since they were founded two years ago, and for them this sports day event with Best Buddies is the highlight of the year,” said Dr. Candice Render, Learning and Disabilities Specialist at GU-Q. “As the club’s advisor, I have seen the hard work and dedication that the members of this club have put into making this event a success.  This event gave the Georgetown community a chance to strengthen the connection with Best Buddies that has been in existence since 1989.”

“Amal is a student-led club at Georgetown University in Qatar. The aim of this club is to raise awareness about the difficulties faced by people with special needs and find solutions to those difficulties. With this event, we brought together members of both communities to play sports, in order to integrate them deeply into our communities,” explained Sherif Elgindi, a student at GU-Q and the founder and president of Amal Club, one of the co-organizers.

“Amal is one of the most active clubs among universities. Coordination and planning for the festival began some time ago, and included the input and effort from students and other members of their community with disabilities who were trained to help with different tasks at the festival.  Furthermore, the GU-Q administration has been committed to resolving all challenges facing the launch of this festival,” said Rania Abou Ghaida, College Program Coordinator at Best Buddies Qatar.