In Juba, South Sudan, veterans of the 22-year-long civil war with Sudan meet once a week to play wheelchair basketball. Disabled people in South Sudan face discrimination, high rates of substance abuse and unemployment, but these men show what else is possible.
The men meet at Juba Basketball Stadium every Tuesday. Some are war veterans with missing legs. Others were stricken by polio.
But all of them are athletes. These are players in South Sudan's Wheelchair Basketball Association.
Gatluak Kual Luak helped found the team in 2011. He lost his leg as a soldier in the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2000. Like many others, he learned the sport as a refugee in Kenya.
"Wheelchair basketball, it is not easy game. It is very technical," he said. "You need a lot of courage. You need a lot of mind. Let me say, you have to be committed. It has changed [the] bigger part of disability in me to ability. I realized that I can do anything like other people. Disability is not inability."
Polio victims
It's not only veterans who participate. James Amule got polio when he was two years old. He says disabled people are passed over for jobs in South Sudan and are called "abukarang" — a slur.
"I have a name. I need to be called by my name, not by a nickname, as my name is called James Amule. I am supposed to be called that, James Amule, not to be called 'that disabled person,' which is not good. Even if you call me that disabled person, I will not feel like I am a human being," he said.
Already, the sport is changing attitudes.
The South Sudan Basketball Federation hopes the team will compete at this year's Paralympics in Brazil.
"Everybody will be cheering them, and that will give them a pride and a sense of representing their country," said Malik.
Courage and pride
For now, though, the team wants to grow the sport at home.
Many disabled South Sudanese sink into alcoholism and poverty. What's more, for the last two years, South Sudan has fought another civil war and produced more wounded veterans.
"We are approaching everyone out [there] to have that courage and play wheelchair basketball so that they also begin a new life, and they realize that they can still do something,” said player Gatluak Kual Luak.
For a nation in need of healing, this sport could be an example of how to move forward.
Newer articles:
- South Sudan opened 'new page' with transitional govt - UN peacekeeping chief - 14/06/2016 03:53
- South Sudan Deputy Governor Warns Those In Diaspora Against Government Criticisms in Social Media - 13/06/2016 07:39
- What New York Times article says about South Sudan - 13/06/2016 07:14
- Former Rebels Say South Sudan Army Attacked as They Set Up Base - 13/06/2016 03:23
- South Sudan rich in minerals - 12/06/2016 15:43
Older news items
- South Sudan health care system in crisis due to cuts - 12/06/2016 06:12
- Hillary Clinton’s State Department Let South Sudan Use Child Soldiers - 11/06/2016 13:16
- South Sudan leaders did not sign off New York Times article, aides say - 10/06/2016 12:30
- South Sudan's Machar Denies Opposing War Crimes Court - 10/06/2016 05:13
- South Sudan: An inconvenient justice - 09/06/2016 16:35
Latest news items (all categories):
- إلى متى ينظر الجميع إلى الفيل و يطعنون ظله..؟ - 15/05/2024 21:51
- SOUTH SUDAN - Peace negotiations in Kenya: Not everyone is convinced of the initiative - 14/05/2024 20:40
- ‘Difficult choices’: The particular vulnerability of children with disabilities in South Sudan - 14/05/2024 20:35
- Uganda in talks with China's Sinohydro over power line to South Sudan - 14/05/2024 20:31
- What South Sudan Can Learn from Neighboring Gold Producers - 14/05/2024 20:27
Random articles (all categories):
- Igad ministers meets to discuss conflict in S. Sudan’s SPLA-IO - 09/08/2021 06:49
- Nearly a million affected by South Sudan flooding, warns UN - 12/10/2022 10:23
- Israel expelling 150 South Sudanese - CBS News - 27/06/2012 06:40
- South Sudan: Humanitarian Access Snapshot (June 2019) - 17/07/2019 05:15
- To Aid South Sudan’s Cease-fire, Increase Transparency - 28/11/2018 23:29
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 35364 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 21875 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 20767 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 17443 times
- With prisons full, South Sudan to introduce mobile courts to clear backlog of cases - 11/10/2012 11:29 - Read 14231 times