The Power of Sport

Afghanistan, Kabul and Herat. 2016-2023. Beneficiaries: 600 people with disabilities.

Sport plays an essential role in the social inclusion of people with disabilities, significantly improving their quality of life and self-esteem. But in Afghanistan - a country at war for over 40 years and with enormous economic, social and security problems - playing a sport remains a dream for those with disabilities, who receive compassion but no rights.

The Power of Sport promotes sports among Afghans with disabilities. It supports Afghan wheelchair basketball teams, finances the costs of national teams participating in international tournaments, donates wheelchairs for competitions and trains professionals (referees, coaches, classifiers) working in the field of disability sport. 

The project financed the rehabilitation of a sports facility in Maimana and, in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, built a sports hall for the disabled in Herat. This was the second such facility in Afghanistan. We are also working on equipping and making the Afghan Paralympic Committee's facilities in Kabul and Ghora accessible.

The project is directed by Alberto Cairo, a NOVE member, two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Henry Dunant Medal recipient. For over thirty years, he has headed the International Committee of the Red Cross Orthopaedic Programme in Afghanistan.