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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter

COORDINATOR of the African Union Sports Council, Decius Chipande, has commended the efforts being made by the African Union Sports Council Region Five towards promoting inclusivity and improving sport in the region.

The AUSC Region Five recently held a three-day visual impairment classification training workshop in Harare with participants drawn from Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe taking part.

The workshop was aimed at training optometrists from the member countries as classifiers for athletes with visual impairment.

Chipande said their hope is to see the AUSC Region Five also sharing their experiences with the other African Union Sports Council Regions.

“First and foremost we are very pleased with the work that was going on here in terms of training of classifiers for athletes with impairments.

“From the African Union Sports Council headquarters point of view and the African Union Commission we are very happy because this is a step towards achieving the African Union agenda 2063 aspirations of the Africa that we want that is inclusive, including persons with disabilities.

“And that said our hope is not to end here. Our hope is that African Union Sports Council Region Five will continue leading not only in terms of training classifiers for athletes with visual impairments. But training classifiers for athletes of various or different impairments and that is our hope.

“In addition to that we hope that the African Union Sports Council Region Five can also share these experiences and insights with other Regions.

“And other African Union Sports Council Regions can also become operational and learn from some of the works that African Union Sports Council Region Five is sharing and is implementing,” said Chipande.

There are five Regions of the African Union Sports Council – Region One in North Africa, Region Two in West Africa, Region Three in Central Africa, Region Four in East Africa and Region Five in Southern Africa.