All set for PWDs Access Half Marathon in Triangle

**Action in last year's paralympics at Boli in Chiredzi South**

Edmore Zvinonzwa

All is now set for the 21km PWD Access Half Marathon slated for Triangle on Saturday.

Organised by the Research Hub for Children with Disabilities, in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Coalition for Debt and Development, the half marathon is meant to fundraise for the physically-challenged.

ReHUB coordinator, Admire Munava said registration has been ongoing for the PWD Access Half Marathon with more males having come forward than female athletes.

“We have registered a significant number of athletes so far with males registering more than females.

“We have more runners registering as groups from corporates. We are hoping those from the uniformed forces are also going to join in to support the run,” said Munava, adding:

“Mobilisation is still ongoing so we cannot really give a clear figure because of the group registrations.

“Our teams will be on the ground to set up the equipment and everything is on course and we are hoping to register a huge success in terms of event subscription and attendance.

“We have people from our disability committees from areas such as Chilonga, Mhlanguleni, Majijimba, Tichadya, Boli and Gwaseche all coming for their event and providing some services at the water points and so on.

“Remember they are the owners of the event in the first place!

Munava also added that the PWD Access Half Marathon is a run to recognise persons with disabilities, a call to the relevant authorities to give access to persons with disabilities to be able to participate in Public Finance Management Processes.

Specifically, according to Munava, people with disability must be consulted during budget consultative meetings as well as access to monitor and track budget expenditure to ensure that disability allocations are reaching out to the intended beneficiaries.

“We believe in collective effort as opposed to a confrontational approach to our challenges as a country. We are all fighting the big elephant in the room, disability inclusion, and we applaud government for the steps they have taken so far to have the National Disability Policy - our hope is that the Disability Bill, gazetted a few weeks back, will replace the old and outdated Disabled persons Act of 1992, placing Zimbabwe in line with the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.

“We further urge the government to sign and ratify the African Disability Protocol,” Munava told Zim Now in an interview.

The ReHUBCD coordinator said there are three distances that will be run and they are categorised by the routes which will be well labelled and there will be ushers to assist on the routes. The vests will also be labelled differently with varying colour codes to determine the distances one will be running. We are saying it is Raising Awareness on Accessibility for Disability. Registration is US$20 and it opened on February 1,” he added.

Last year, ReHUBCD held the first paralympics at Boli in Chiredzi South where over 100 children living with disability gathered for the competitions.

The children, who were drawn from seven schools in the constituency, were competing following a two-year break from sport caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged economies and bartered people’s living conditions.