The Jamaican Paralympic Association (JPA) will be searching long and hard for funds to allow its athletes to compete in two of the biggest Championships next year - the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games and the 2015 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships due to be held in Doha.

Christopher Samuda, President of the JPA, placed these two events on the top of the agenda for the team next year and says they will be "going out aggressively" in order to secure the funds needed to cover the trips.

"Toronto is going to be in August and the World Championships will be in October; two tremendous expenses on our books and we'll be going out aggressively for the support," Samuda said during the unveiling of the symbolic Cauldron Petal at the Norman Manley International Airport.

"We need funding and we, thank God, have survived under the benevolence of individual persons and companies.

"We salute the generosity, but that is not enough."

Alphanso Cunningham won Jamaica's only Paralympic medal at London 2012, a gold in the F52/53 javelin  ©Getty Images



Samuda, who is also secretary general of the Jamaican Olympic Association, said he hopes to form medium to long term partnerships with supporters in order to sustain Paralympic funding in the future.

This would allow the team not only to fund the two upcoming Championships, but enable the JPA to become better prepared to finance and budget for major championships in the future.

"We need to get the sponsors onboard in a sustained way, not just simply supporting events, but supporting development programmes," he said. 

"We are hoping to tie down sponsorships of three, four, five years so that we know that our budget can be caste with some certainty, fully knowing that inflows will be coming to support the various programmes that we have."

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