PASSOBO is a sport body for people living with physical, vision, and intellectual disabilities. Speaking to MmegiSport, PASSOBO vice president, Monty Ratlou, said the Paralympic National Committee should be treated the same as the BNOC, with sporting codes underneath. He said the first thing is for the sport leadership to understand the Para Sport. “The problem is that we are treated like any other sporting code. The leadership must position the Paralympic National Committee where it should be. When we have it, resources will be there and we will be able to resuscitate the Para Sport such as wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, power lifting, and blind football,” he said. Ratlou said it was deliberate to set up the BNOC and, therefore, they can do the same with the Paralympic National Committee.
He observed that lack of facilities is a challenge for people living with disabilities. Ratlou said there are no public playing fields for sport such as blind football and the only available ones are privately owned. Blind football is an adaptation of football for athletes with vision impairment played with an audible ball. “The majority of the blind are based in Mochudi. There is no venue to play blind football. It is a complicated game and you cannot just play it in a dusty field used to play community football. Each pitch should be surrounded by kick-boards, a physical barrier that indicates the boundaries of the playing area,” he said.
Ratlou said the lack of facilities means the sport does not progress. He said most of the players of blind football are students at Lentswe Junior Secondary School, Molefhi Senior Secondary School, and Pudulogong Rehabilitation Centre. “Most of these players are from different locations of the country. After completing their studies they decide to settle in Mochudi. If we had a pitch suitable for blind football in Mochudi, we were going to have a team that we could send to the Paralympic Games,” Ratlou said. He said some of the issues that they have raised with the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) start at the Schools of Excellence. “As an example, Edwin Masuge is a talented athlete but he did not do well academically. We approached the BNSC that he be admitted at Goodhope Senior Secondary School, the challenge is that he uses Braille and there is no special setup for special education at that school,” he said.
Ratlou said since many blind athletes are based in Mochudi, it is high time to set up a School of Excellence there for virtually impaired athletes. “Maybe we should seek sponsorship to have that set up in Mochudi. We have not engaged the BNSC on that. The support for people with disabilities exists but it is never enough. There is a lot that needs to be done in Para Sport,” Ratlou said.
