gurugram when people hear the word disability they tend to think of what a person cant do rather than what he or she can do it was a mindset aditya k v a resident of delhi came across too often for his comfort for he saw sport as a means of breaking down the barriers between the differently abled and the ablebodiedso aditya started a programme in gurugram which encourages individuals with intellectual disabilities and special needs to take part in sporting activity the seeds of which were planted by a sports injury he suffered back in 2005 which left him bedridden for a long timethe injury allowed me to realise the various challenges faced by people with disabilities recalled aditya our purpose is to create an environment of inclusion inside schools by bringing children without disabilities to play alongside children and adults with disabilitiesthis 32yearold feels the only way kids with disability can learn about their potential and lead enriched lives is through sport we believe sport benefits all equally and our programme enables participants to not only improve physical and social skills and promote a healthy lifestyle but also to build friendshipsbut if there was one experience that got aditya questioning societys priorities it was the time he spent mentoring kids during his fellowship with teach for india from 2012 to 2014 we would deny participation to children with disabilities now this really troubled me why cant kids who are suffering for no fault of theirs play sports he would askand so was born umoya sports a foundation that sought to work towards providing holistic development for students with disabilities by getting them to embrace the joys of sport in the ngos yearlong progressive therapeutic sports programme which is integrated with academics students go through 108 hours of trainingumoya currently working with two schools in gurugram and one in delhi has incorporated an intervention buddy system into its programme each child with a special need is assigned a buddy in this case someone without disabilities the buddy acts as a mentor and empowers kids to learn about a particular sport explains adityain the current academic year the notforprofit is working with around 250 students with disabilities we aim to expand to five more schools and bring the joy of play to 1000 children with special needs shared aditya incidentally umoya takes a nominal fee from those schools conducting the programme on their premisesin its efforts to build an inclusive sports culture umoya has joined hands with another ngo vishwas besides it is involved in special adaptive sports programmes for children with special needs in partnership with khushboo welfare society and in collaboration with action for autismin september umoya sports was recognised by the prestigious beyond sport global awards for using sport to achieve the un global goals for sustainable development we were the only indian organisation to be selected from over 400 applications from 100 countries informs a proud aditya