Andreea Herbei, self-advocate from Romania, talks about her participation in the Youth Dialogue on sport with European Commissioner Glen Micallef.
Can you tell us about your experience with sports?
I cannot put into words how I feel when I am playing wheelchair basketball. It just makes me very happy, and it increases my self-esteem a lot.
It has also taught me many other skills. For example, I improved my management skills because when my team plays, we have to arrange everything, from transportation to sponsors.
I feel that society looks at people with intellectual disabilities a lot differently when they watch us play sports.
How was your Youth Dialogue experience?
Mr Micallef was friendly and open-minded. He had already tried wheelchair basketball.
There were many people there with whom I could exchange experiences and opinions. During the meeting, we only had 2 minutes to talk, so I emphasised the psychological benefits of sports for people with intellectual disabilities. I also spoke about how sports creates employment.
After the meeting, I brought a book and gave it to the Commissioner. The book is about a colleague from Ceva de Spus, who spent 25 years in different institutions and orphanages, and the millions of people in institutions who don’t even have access to sport. I gave Mr Micallef this book to help him understand this.
During the meeting it was sometimes not easy to follow what people were saying, but they tried to talk in an easy-to-understand way.
The goal of the Youth Dialogue is to improve European policies. Do you think you had this impact?
I hope that everything I said will be taken into consideration, because this is my experience and my truth.
It was important to express my opinion because I care about accessibility in sports.
In Romania, it is not easy to find accessible accommodation, venues and funding for sports for people with disabilities.
Other participants talked about the lack of public spaces for sports too: If there were more in every city, sports would be accessible to everyone. They suggested opening sports facilities for everyone, and I think this is especially important for children with disabilities.
