Children from the Mantes-la-Jolie Rouge & Bleu School take part in two disability sport awareness days

As part of the third École S'Handifférence project, some 30 children from the Paris Saint-Germain – Les Enfants d’abord Rouge et Bleu School in Mantes-la-Jolie took part in two days dedicated to disability awareness and integration through sport. Organised in partnership with the Association Sportive Mantaise, the days were held on 21 and 28 May.

The events saw children from the elementary schools of Mantes la Jolie and specialist units in Les Yvelines (among them the Medical/Educational Institute (IME), day centres, and the Special Education and Home Care Services (SESSAD)) come together at the Rouge et Bleu School’s facilities, the Lucan and Camus gyms, and the Stade Jean Paul David to participate in sports and leisure activities taking disability as their theme. 

Focusing on torball, wheelchair basketball, blind tennis, judo, blind obstacle courses and a variety of football challenges, a number of different workshops were organised, giving the young people present the chance to discover some new sports and raise their awareness of the problems people with disabilities have to deal with.

“This initiative ties in with a series of operations carried out by the Foundation this season and which aim to promote diversity and inclusion through sport,” said Sabrina Delannoy, deputy director of the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation. “These encounters with children with disability are enriching experiences for the children, who have no difficulty in engaging with others. Through workshops that reveal the constraints faced by persons with disabilities, we can raise their awareness of the difficulties they encounter and promote solidarity.”

About Paris Saint-Germain-Les Enfants d’Abord:

The first corporate foundation to be created by a French sports club, the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation came into being in 2000 to give support to sick and underprivileged children and disadvantaged youngsters and communities. When Nasser Al Khelaifi took over as president of the Foundation in 2012, he provided it with the means to broaden its activities, with an endowment fund being created to receive donations. Over the last 19 years, more than 220,000 children and young people have benefitted from programmes implemented by the Paris Saint-Germain Foundation and/or Endowment Fund.

The Endowment Fund and Foundation have now been brought together in a single entity, Les Enfants D’abord.

Les Enfants d’Abord rolls out educational and sports programmes in France and abroad that use sport and its values as tools for learning, personal development and solidarity. Through its social and vocational integration programme, its ROUGE & BLEU Schools, its support for refugees and its charity donations, Les Enfants d’Abord focuses on the educational and psychological benefits of sport in offering support to sick and socially disadvantaged children.