20 new ‘Boccia Ambassadors’ attended a workshop in Dubai on 18 May, where they learned how to play boccia and how to teach others to play the game. Our new Boccia Ambassadors will return to their counties not only excited by what they have learned, but also with a stock of boccia balls which will help them to develop the sport. Countries which attended were: India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates
Following the success of the project which was launched in South Africa in March 2015, BISFed has now trained Boccia Ambassadors from 23 countries in Africa, Central and South America and Asia, and has distributed over 400 sets of boccia balls to these countries.
BISFed President, David Hadfield, who was in Dubai for the workshop said: “Our vision for the Making Boccia Accessible project was to bring boccia to 10,000 people who had never played the game. With the generous help of all our sponsors* I believe our dream will now become a reality. All our new Ambassadors are so excited at the prospect of introducing boccia to their communities and countries, and every week we get reports of how much fun people are having playing boccia. My hope is that one day soon we will see athletes who have experienced boccia through the Making Boccia Accessible project, participating in the Paralympic Games.”
* The Making Boccia Accessible project has been sponsored by the International Paralympic Committee’s AGITOS Foundation; UK Sport and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office; and the law firm Hogan Lovells
