By Paul Osborne

The latest Agitos Foundation workshop has been held in Kigali, Rwanda to help boost Paralympic sport across ©Rwanda NPCThe Agitos Foundation is continuing in its aims to boast participation in Para-sport after hosting its latest workshop for National Paralympic Committee (NPC) youth coordinators in Kigali, Rwanda.

Organised by Agitos, set-up by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and which claims to be the leading global organisation developing sport activities for people with an impairment as a tool for changing lives, the workshop ran for three days

It included evaluation of different programmes as a starting point for sustainable youth programmes, sharing knowledge, strengthening networks and spreading information about the Paralympic Movement.

The workshop was attended by 10 coordinators from different countries across Africa.

The attendees are all youths committed to use sport as a tool for change, with the workshop's main objective to help the coordinators implement youth Para-sport programmes within their own countries, it was claimed.

The first workshop was held in 2012 and since then athletes from Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have been selected for sitting volleyball and goalball national teams, including a total of seven female sitting volleyball players identified for the very first national team.

The men's sitting volleyball side have gone on to the African Championships and qualification tournament for the World Championships.

The goalball team also competed at the African Championships.

In individual sports, a Kenyan powerlifter made it to the 2014 IPC Powerlifting World Championships in Dubai and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

During this latest workshop pairs of coordinators presented their progress and also learnt more about athlete development, strategic partnerships, funding and proposal writing, developing presentation and facilitation skills and drafting youth development strategies.

The next major milestone is identifying people with a flair for athletics.

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