Barça promotes a more accessible and equitable world with three of its teams
Today, 3rd of December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, proclaimed by the United Nations Organisation in 1992, is celebrated worldwide, and FC Barcelona wanted to join in by bringing together for the first time its teams made up of men and women with physical, intellectual or sensory disabilities. For this reason, the Juan Carlos Navarro pavilion in Sant Félix de Llobregat, with the attendance of the executive Miquel Camps, has been the venue of an emotional encounter before the wheelchair basketball game, corresponding to the sixth round of the First Division, between UNES Barça and Sureste Gran Canaria. The fact is that the athletes and the coaching staff of the Barça wheelchair basketball team have welcomed, sharing experiences with the male and players of Barça Hockey Plus and with footballers from the Barça Foundation.
The men and women who make up UNES Barça, the Barça Genuine Foundation and Barça Hockey Plus, in addition to playing a sport in the best conditions (in this case basketball, football and field hockey) and with rules adapted to their disabilities, improve their autonomy, their self-esteem and their health. They do it, moreover, as part of an entity such as FC Barcelona, which helps make visible and claim their rights to social inclusion.
UNAS Barça (wheelchair basketball)
The FC Barcelona wheelchair basketball team is a linked amateur section, managed by UNES, a not for profit organisation that promotes sports among people with physical disabilities. It plays its matches in the Juan Carlos Navarro pavilion in San Félix de Llobregat and this season is competing in the First Division, the second national category. The players in this team, like the other wheelchair basketball players, claim their status as top-level athletes.
Barça Foundation (football)
FC Barcelona and the FC Barcelona Foundation opted, in the summer of 2021, for the creation of a mixed football team made up of men and women with intellectual disabilities, to promote their social integration and their training in values. The initiative came from the Club's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department, but La Masía and the Foundation itself were also involved. This is how the Barça Foundation team was born, which plays, among other competitions, the Genuine League, of which it was champion in its first participation.
Barça Hockey Plus (field hockey)
In November 2006, FC Barcelona promoted the playing of field hockey among the group of people with intellectual disabilities, with the collaboration of the Paideia and Moragas special education schools. Today, FC Barcelona Barcelonés Stick Hockey is part of the Club's field hockey structure, one of the amateur sections, has two mixed teams, plays its matches at the Municipal Pau Negre de Montjuïc and participates in the Hockey Plus League organised by the Catalan Hockey Federation.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, approved in 2006, declared that "accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities are fundamental rights." In this regard, the United Nations Organisation sets the objectives for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which are to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities, in all social spheres, and their development, as well as awareness about their situation in all aspects of political, economic and cultural life. This year the motto of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is "Innovation to promote an accessible and equitable world", and one of the three topics that it will deal with will be sports as an "example of good practices and a place for innovation, work and equity".