From May 10-12, Wheelchair Athletes Worldwide (WAW), a small American NGO, will be partnering with a variety of Nepali NGOs including Nepal Wheelchair Rugby Association, Nepal Spinal Cord Injury Sports Association, Nepal Physiotherapy Association, Bikash Nepal, VSO Nepal, ENGAGE, CSRC (accommodation), Nepal Army (transportation), Nepal Basketball on Facebook, the government through Nepal Paralympic Committee and the National Sports Council, providing an in-kind donation of the Covered Hall as well as, a variety of corporates including DRAGONAIR/Cathay Pacific providing free transports of 11 donated sports wheelchairs from Los Angles to Kathmandu, Chaudhary Group (CG Foundation), providing Wei-Wei and soft drinks, gold medals for all athletes and a banner, the Himalayan providing four advertisements, Himalaya Television, providing media coverage, Bottlers Nepal, providing soft drinks, International College of Hospitality Management (ICHM) providing meals, Media Gallery providing advertisement design, FORCE Nepal, media coverage, and Nature Trail Travels and Tours providing transportation for wheelchair athletes.
The partnerships that have flowed out of this small event have made me truly appreciate the possibilities in Nepal. The corporate involvement is a start for potentially larger CSR possibilities that have sustainable impact for Persons with Disabilities to be further included in Nepali society. The fact that the National Sports Council, Nepal Paralympic Committee and Army are participating to help Persons with Disabilities is extremely heart-warming. The encouragement and support from civil society organisations is a testament to being able to put aside our differences and work collaboratively.
This entire activity will be accomplished only through in-kind donations. For the participating corporates, they will be seen as disability friendly organisations, which is positive for their products/reputation and perhaps they will also consider hiring Persons with Disabilities. Consumers want to know how corporates are contributing to the triple bottom line of profits, people and planet. The event provides more opportunities as per the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), as well as the beginning of infrastructure, through the donation by WAW of sports wheelchairs. This event, combined with recent Danish training, also can be used as a springboard for developing further capacity amongst both players and coaches of wheelchair sports. More importantly it provides a place for Persons with Disabilities to be in a fun, social environment. For Nepali society this provides the public with another forum for understanding that Persons with Disabilities are no different in their desires than anyone else, in the long run leading to more inclusion and integrating those marginalized into the mainstream.
CSR activities and collaboration amongst various sectors, does not have to mean spending a lot of money. But it does have to mean working together towards common goals. In this specific case CSR is about promoting opportunities for Persons with Disabilities creating a more enabling Nepal. There is a long way road ahead, e.g. in such aspects as basic infrastructure like curb cuts, accessible buildings, etc. further enabling Persons with Disabilities to participate in all activities in Nepali society. But, as long as there is collaborations between government, civil society, corporates and other sectors, anything is possible and in the end we are all winners and champions.
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