Afghanistan wins 1st Annual Hanna Lahoud International Wheelchair Basketball Tournament
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in partnership with the Tripoli Disabled Sport Association (TDSA) and the Hanna Lahoud Foundation, hosted the 1st Annual Hanna Lahoud International Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in Al Jinan University in Tripoli, North of Lebanon.
Teams from Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon challenged one another over four days (from 28 November to 1 December). The team from Afghanistan prevailed and was awarded the cup at the final ceremony, while the Syrian and Indian teams ranked second and third respectively.
Lebanese Basketball stars, Fadi El Khatib, Yasser El Hajj, Rony Fahed, Nadim Soueid and Wael Arakji joined Saturday for a friendly game to support athletes with disabilities and help raise awareness on the importance of para-sports. Nesrine Aydin, a Lebanese Turkish athlete and fitness trainer who lost her leg to a stray bullet, was also there to share her experience.
The wheelchair basketball project is the most well established disability sports program supported by the ICRC. It aims at promoting physical, emotional and social integration of people with disabilities through sports as a powerful tool that increases self-esteem and brings together disparate communities from all cultural, gender and religious backgrounds, refugees and non-refugees, with or without disabilities.
This tournament marks the international day of people with disabilities (3 December) whose theme for 2018 highlights empowerment, inclusiveness and equality, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which pledges to “leave no one behind”.
The tournament also pays tribute to Hanna Lahoud, a Lebanese-born ICRC delegate who fell in line of duty in April 2018 in Taiz, Yemen. Hanna, who believed in sports and inclusion, was an enthusiastic wheelchair basketball supporter.
For more information please contact ICRC Spokesperson Rona Al Halabi on 70153928.