Sport without Barriers

Sport without Barriers came into existence in response to an ever-growing number of petitions addressed to the Barriers Account by mostly young people who have come to terms with their handicap and would like to draw level with their non-handicapped peers not only in everyday life, but also as far as an active lifestyle including sports is concerned. We are more than interested in supporting these efforts. But it isn't cheap: all sports equipment takes a heavy toll on the purse. Because the Barriers Account is not even capable of satisfying all petitioners in need of basic aids to come to grips with their handicap, the Account wants to find a new pool of donors – new sponsors – for the promotion of handicapped sports. This is the significant goal of the project Sport without Barriers, which now looks back on its second year of operations.

The project aims at assisting amateur sports activities and would like to support kinds of sports, and sporting individuals, who are not funded by state budgets and are thus endangered. Our goal is to support recreational sports, leisure-time sports, and professional sports on the level of regular competitions for athletes with a specific kind of handicap. We do not seek to support top athletes associated under the auspices of the paralympic committee who do not lack the requisite funding.

The project strategy relies on cooperation with eminent athletes. We believe that this will yield increased media interest, allowing us to highlight the needs of young people with handicaps who want to lead an active life and pursue sports at least on an amateur level.