The Santos Dumont Institute and the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB) formalized the partnership for the installation of the ISD Paralympic Reference Center in Macaíba (RN). The project, which will operate within the ISD Specialized Rehabilitation Center (CER ISD), will have as its main objective to encourage the practice of sport for people with disabilities in the region, from basic to high performance. 

The ISD Paralympic Reference Center in Macaíba will rely on the joint action of physical education professionals from the CPB and the multidisciplinary team of ISD preceptors, and will initially work on the para-sports activities of Bocce and Athletics. The Institute already has activities aimed at parasports. 

“The Reference Centers are already part of a process of massification of Paralympic sport. Every year, Rio Grande do Norte participates prominently in the School Paralympics [another CPB project focused on sports initiation]. And the creation of a Reference Center becomes very important as we will be able to serve a much larger number of participants and this will certainly reflect positively on the State's participation in the School and Regional Paralympics”, said Ramon Pereira, Director of Sports Development of CPB.

For the coordinator of CER ISD, Camila Simão, the partnership is fundamental in the possibility of expanding the offer of activities. “We have already seen, based on previous studies, that people with disabilities encounter several barriers to the practice of sports, and the main one refers to the lack of spaces and professionals prepared for this inclusion”, he explains. 

Among the activities, the Center intends to implement teaching, research and extension strategies. In teaching, with the training of new professionals with a focus on para-sports; in research, through the development of assistive technologies and, in extension, offering sport as an ally of rehabilitation, both in the rehabilitation process and thinking about the post-rehabilitation, bringing people with disabilities the possibility of implementing para-sports in the day to day or professionally, for example. 

“A context of greater social inclusion may also allow these people with disabilities to emerge as para-athletes, with the talent to be high-performance athletes, go to the Paralympics and represent our State and our country. It is a way to identify skills and potential”, says Camila Simão. 

Parasport at ISD

Currently, the ISD encourages the practice of parasports for users of the CER ISD care lines, in weekly meetings that are held in partnership with the City Hall of Macaíba, in the urban area of the municipality.

In addition to providing the practice of parasports, the Institute holds courses, training activities and events on the subject, involving physical educators, professionals from other health areas, and CER users and their families.