Οn the occasion of Women’s Day, an information day was organized at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), which gave the floor to women, mothers and female athletes with disability as well as mothers of children with disability, highlighting the contribution of sports to their own as well as their children’s quality of life.
Women for whom disability forms part of their daily lives have spoken on the social acceptance of themselves and/or of their children, giving their own perspective on the improvements – or non-improvements – they have identified in recent years. Sports now play a significant role in the well-being of people with disability by managing to shift interest to their potential. The speeches delivered on the information day pointed out that engaging in sports activities has a positive effect on the development of cognitive and motor skills, self-confidence and the degree of socialization, as well as that making an early diagnosis and intervention is important.
The 1st section was entitled: Social Dimension
You can watch the video of the 1st section here:
Speaker: Konstantina Maglara, MD, PhD, Child Psychiatrist, 1st Psychiatric Clinic, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA)
Topic: Woman-Mother with Disability
Approaching the relationship between mother and child with physical or mental disability
Speaker: Elena Soukakou, PhD, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Roehampton, Konstantina Maglara, MD, PhD, Child Psychiatrist, 1st Psychiatric Clinic, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Topic: Inclusion in the preschool years: What are the benefits and who are the beneficiaries?
The 1st section closed with the realistic and profoundly human speech of Ms Irini Vafiadou, mother of two children with disabilities and Theology Teacher.
The 2nd section was entitled: Sports & Disability.
You can watch the video of the 2nd section here:
Speaker: Irini Kamberidou, Associate Professor of Sociology, School of Physical Education and Sport Science (SEFAA), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Topic: Social Representation of disability in sports
Speaker: Dimitra Koutsouki, Professor at the School of Physical Education and Sport Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and Director of the Laboratory of Adapted Motor Activity/Developmental & Motor Disorders
Topic: The role of sports in the social inclusion of people with disabilities
The second section closed with the personal stories of Efi Vlami, Greece’s Wheelchair Fencing Champion, and Ada Stamatatou, mother of child with disabilities.
You can watch the video of the 3rd section here:
Katerina Vrana, Greek comedian, including in stand-up shows, struck her personal tone at the event with her satire on hard issues such as disability, making reference to her own difficult health experience.
You can watch the video of the 4th section here:
The information day ended with discussion, led by Petra Kalamboki and the paralympian Makis Kalaras, founder of Rush Out, on issues of improvement in the quality of life of people with disability.
