Visit to Lithuania: Sport for people with disabilities
Hello! My name is Penka Atanasova and I am a senior expert “People with special needs and veterans” in the Municipality of Varna. From May 12 to 18, I had the honor and pleasure of visiting Lithuania at the invitation of the organizers of a project “Empowering young people with disabilities through sport” under the Erasmus+ program, aimed at sports for people with disabilities. This opportunity allowed us to become closely acquainted with various activities and initiatives that are carried out in Lithuania to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities.
In Lithuania, people with disabilities are given a lot of attention. The aspiration of local authorities and organizations is to create the best conditions for work, sports and entertainment for these people, so that they do not lack anything. During our visit, we had the opportunity to see a fully equipped sports hall, specially adapted to the needs of people with disabilities. There we were introduced to games such as chess, checkers and showdown for the blind, which are popular and contribute to the active lifestyle of these people.
Particularly impressive was our visit to a horse base, where we learned about hippotherapy – a therapy method that uses horses to improve physical and emotional health. This is an extremely valuable practice that deserves attention and development in our country as well.
Among the new sports we were introduced to there were disc golf and frame running. These sports are widespread there, but they are not yet popular in our country. They offer new opportunities for physical activity and socialization for people with disabilities, and it is important to consider their introduction in our country.
The visit brought us many positive emotions and impressions. Lithuania turned out to be a beautiful country with many rivers and lakes that offers great cuisine and hospitality. We were convinced that we could learn a lot from their experience and apply what we saw in our country to improve living conditions and sports for people with disabilities.
I believe that this project will be only the beginning of a long-lasting and fruitful cooperation between our countries, which will lead to even better results and opportunities for people with disabilities in Bulgaria.
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