We remind our project assumptions:: START – activating and integrating people with disabilities through adapted traditional sports and games
One of the most important areas of EU policy (eg. Erasmus+ Programme) is the preservation of traditions and cultural identity (eg. Traditional Sport Games – TSG) as well as increasing level of physical activity and sport and thereby health and quality of life. Alongside issue of disability and social integration is one of the key priorities of EU policy. People with disabilities in most EU countries still do not have the same opportunities to participate in social life especially in sport in grassroots dimension as abled-bodied people. Our project is a proposition which combines all those priorities. We plan to offer people with disabilities, academic centres, specialist, volunteers who work in field of disability or sports new tool and opportunity to increase level of participation in social and cultural life and thus increase level of cultural awareness, integration, independence, and physical activity.
Towards two workshops and cooperation of four countries (Bulgaria, FYR of Macedonia, Turkey and Poland) which represent different cultures and social policies we plan to prepare a set of TSG (in TSG guideline) from Participants cultures, which will be adapted for people with disabilities and promoted in Project Countries. We anticipate that after overcoming most of project limitations (stereotypes, awareness problems, adaptation of TSG etc.) its results will spread to other countries and projects in the future. Thanks to the international cooperation that each of the Project Partners are involved TSG may be widely used, as: new tool of integration in social life (abled-bodied and disabled people), physical activity, sport and rehabilitation. The final effect of project will be increasing awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity, through increased participation in TSG as form of grassroots sports, and promotion of voluntarily.