Engineer Ayman Abdel-Wahab, Special Olympics MENA Region President and Managing Director, has been reappointed for the position for a fourth term consecutively till 2020 in an unprecedented move in international organisations worldwide. Abdel-Wahab was re-elected for his tremendous efforts throughout the region as was announced in the renewal statement issued by the Special Olympics International Executive Committee meetings held in the United States. According to the statement, if not for Abdel-Wahab's persistence and hard-work, Special Olympics as a movement serving people with intellectual disabilities would have never achieved what has been done in the MENA Region's different programmes. In spite of all the troubles and the Arab Spring revolutions taking place all over the region, the MENA Region athletes were always present in all the Summer and Winter Games held. Abdel-Wahab was named as MENA Region President in 2001. Since then, the MENA Region was able to leap with the number of participants to reach 175,000 athletes this year. Commenting on the unprecedented achievement, Abdel-Wahab said, “I am very happy with this great trust, which adds more burdens on my shoulders, but I am very excited to have more time to serve my dear athletes with intellectual disabilities who need all our care and support throughout the region. We were supposed to attract more athletes but we are stuck with all the countries throughout the region, which are facing wars or revolutions and this makes our mission almost impossible in such harsh situations but I am doing my best and will continue to exert my best to reach each and every intellectually-disabled athlete through the region.”
