Morocco seeks to host the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games. Abeer Anwar assesses its chances Five countries are bidding to host the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games for disabled athletes. Morocco, representing the Middle East and North Africa region, has a good a chance as any. "When we inaugurated the MENA region headquarters in 2001, my dream at the time which I announced publicly was for MENA to host the 2011 World Summer Games. It was a dream and now it's coming true," Ayman Abdel-Wahab, MENA's managing director, said. "We are bidding to host the Games with other strong countries with huge programmes, including India, Brazil, the US and Germany. All these have strong Special Olympics programmes but Morocco is strong as well," Abdel-Wahab said. He added that a number of MENA countries asked to host the summer games but the headquarters decided to be represented by Morocco because it has excellent sports facilities. Abdel-Wahab said the bid was backed by Moroccan King Mohamed VI and supported by Princess Lala Amina, honourary chairwoman of Special Olympics Morocco. "This is a sports mad country," said Lee Todd, chief of the World Games Division, while touring Morocco. Abdel-Wahab said the Moroccan bid had also been backed by Morocco's sports professionals, including 1,500 metre world record holder and Olympic gold medallist Hesham Gerrouj, 1984 Olympics gold medal winner Nawal Al-Motawakel and Nozha Bedwan. "I have very high hopes and I think we will be able to win and host the 2011 Summer Games," Abdel-Wahab said. A Special Olympics committee will pay site visits to all bidding countries up until 31 March 2007. The decision will be announced in June 2007. As for Special Olympics Lebanon, Abdel-Wahab said, "We were helping the Lebanon programme with a grant for three years. This was before the war but now all activities are held up as is everything else. I feel very sorry for our athletes and all of Lebanese as well but there is nothing we can do." Abdel-Wahab said MENA was still facing obstacles in a number of programmes in Somalia, Djibouti and the Comoros in addition to Sudan, Iraq, Palestine "and now Lebanon." Abdel-Wahab said Dubai would host the SO MENA fifth Regional Games "Zayed Al-Kheir" from 11-15 November 2006. One thousand athletes representing 20 SO programmes in the region would be competing under the patronage of Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. Ten sports will be on display: aquatics, badminton, basketball, bocce, athletics, equestrian, five- a-side football, power lifting, table tennis and team handball. The mission of the Games, the first to be held in the Gulf area, is to provide unique sports, social, cultural, humane and enjoyable experiences to all Special Olympics athletes, allowing them to celebrate their abilities, demonstrate joy, develop friendships and provide their families and the community with an exceptional medium to change the world. The Games will also engage athletes in some special Olympics initiatives such as the third Regional Athlete Leadership Programmes Congress, the second Regional Family Forum, the third Regional Youth Summit and healthy athletes screenings held in the following healthy athletes disciplines -- Healthy Promotion (first time in the region), Healthy Hearing, Opening Eyes and Special Smiles.
