Inas receives Agitos funding

Inas is to receive a grant of more than €14,000 to fund a project to develop opportunities in Africa for athletes with an intellectual disability.

The project is one of 30 to receive funding from the Agitos Foundation – launched by the International Paralympic Committee to promote disability sport development around the World – and is funded by the recent IOC-IPC partnership agreement.

Inas identified development across all five continental regions as one its key aims in its recently published strategic plan, as it works to become a more global organisation. Despite its size, there are currently few African nations in membership of Inas and few athletes registered to compete in the intellectual disability classification. No athletes from Africa competed within the classification at the recent Paralympic Games in London.

Through the project, Inas aims to put in place a development taskforce who will build partnerships with disability sports providers and existing competition organisers to raise awareness of Inas and sport for athletes with an intellectual disability, build understanding of the eligibility and classification process, and begin to identify the pathways so that more athletes have an opportunity to progress in competition.

Nick Parr, Inas Executive Director thanked the Agitos Foundation for their support. “We were delighted to learn that our application had been successful as it helps our work to ensure more athletes, from more nations, have the opportunity to enjoy and succeed in sport. Inas membership has grown to an all-time high this year and I hope that the project will enable us to support more nations to be inclusive of athletes with an intellectual disability”.