Close your eyes, cover your ears, open your soul!
For December 3, The International Day of People with Disabilities, the Association Junior Sport in partnership with the Foundation Sense International Romania and the producer of sports equipment ANCADA, together with great champions of Romanian sports, launched the campaign BORN FOR SPORTS, a campaign dedicated to children with deafblindness.
Born for sports
Valeria van Groningen Răcilă – Olympic champion in rowing, Ecaterina Oancia – multiple Olympic and world champion in rowing, Silvia Stroescu – Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, Alina Alexandra Dumitru – Olympic and European Judo champion, Irina Deleanu – world bronze medalist in rhythmic gymnastics and president of the Romanian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics, Dorina Gabriela Mihai – world fencing champion, Monica Iagăr – athlete, European high jump champion, Traian Rus – multiple world and European Kempo champion, Alin Romulus Păcurar – absolute Balkan champion, multiple European medalist in free fighting and Honored Master of Sports, Hajnal Iuliu – a legend of Romanian football, Gruia Docan – Holder of 4 dan Kyokushin Karate and president of the Romanian Federation of Kyokushin, Nicu Dobre – President of the Romanian Oina Federation, Ștefan Sandulache – former basketball player, currently Director of Bucharest Department for Sports and Youth, Mircea Barna – former captain of the national basketball team and owner of ANCADA sports equipment producer, Theo Matican – multiple medalist in national and international swimming, skiing and cycling competitions for people with disabilities, the young sports champions Nicolas Luca Lupu – fencing golden medalist, Miriam Ciolacu – football player and athlete with numerous trophies and medals, Monica Elena Duca – double world champion in acrobatic dancing, Andrei Victor Păcurar – multiple gold medalist in free fighting, Andrei Sandulache – basketball player, Alina Alexoi – National Romanian Television TV reporter and Andrei Pralea – Business Manager at ANCADA, launched the sporting equipment collection called BORN FOR SPORTS.
Through a series of suggestive photos, as well as a video, these 22 participants to the campaign sent a heartwarming message supporting the cause of children with deafblindness:
„I, born for sports, take into account the fact that beyond the sports community that I am part of, there are people with deafblindness, who can neither see nor hear about my performance. Yet, through my gesture, I bring light and sound into their life. Close your eyes, cover your ears, open your soul!“
The sporting equipment producer ANACADA will donate 30% of the sporting equipment sales from the collection BORN FOR SPORTS to these children! We thank the professional photographers for their probono support: Florian Gîndilă (Bucharest) and Iosif Vajnar (Pixel Prosport Târgu Mureș).
But… what is deafblindess?
Deafblindness is a severe multisensory impairment, most times associated with other types of disability, generating major difficulties in communication, access to information, orientation and mobility.
Among world well-known people with deafblindness, we can mention Francisco Goya – the famous Spanish painter who became deaf and blind in his last years of life, Helen Keller – a famous American writer, the first person with deafblindness who graduated college and our own Vasile Adamescu – a Romanian teacher and artist, who lost both his vision and hearing when he was a child, and now, he is the biggest promoter of the rights of people with deafblindness in Romania.
The Foundation Sense International Romania is the only organisation in our country working for the benefit of children with deafblindness, since 2001. Along the years, this organisation supported over 500 children through high quality education services, initiated the early intervention programme for babies born with sensory impairments and now is mainly focusing on young people with deafblindness, providing them with the opportunity to lean an independent life through the vocational programme.