“The vision of Etgarim,” says Nir Hacohen, CEO of the Israeli organization that empowers individuals with disabilities through outdoor challenge sports, “is that sports has a great rehabilitation value. One can participate in all types of sports, no matter what their disability– physical, emotional, cognitive, or sensory.” Etgarim provides participants with the motivation, professional guidance, and adaptation of sports to specific disabilities. “If these three things are present, the sky is the limit,” says Hacohen.
Each year, 1,500 volunteers across the country assist 6,000 disabled participants in 12 outdoor sports, including sailing, surfing, swimming, water skiing, kayaking, scuba diving, cycling, running, extreme outdoor hikes, rappelling, and off-road vehicle driving. “Outdoor sports have a special value,” says Hacohen, “because they enable one to feel part of the community. People with disabilities often have difficulty leaving their homes or feel shame in doing so, and this removes the stigma.”
Hacohen adds that Etgarim provided extensive assistance to members of evacuated communities from Sderot and the Gaza Envelope during the Swords of Iron War, who had experienced significant trauma. Currently, the organization is completing construction of a sports club (moadon) in Sderot, together with the local municipality, for people with disabilities and post-trauma, to encourage and develop resilience.
In addition, the organization is bringing sports to people who were injured and wounded in the war, both with physical disabilities as well as those experiencing emotional issues, including IDF veterans and those who escaped from the Nova music festival. “It is a great privilege and a moral obligation to be part of their rehabilitation journey,” says Hacohen.
Etgarim emphasizes four elements in helping those with disabilities participate in sports: physical, cognitive, emotional, and social. “Together, these four characteristics can greatly impact their lives,” he notes.
Thirty-three-year-old Oran Almog, a resident of Haifa, is one of Etgarim’s great success stories. On October 4, 2003, the then ten-year-old was blinded and lost five family members in a terror attack at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. Twenty-one people were killed, including five members of his family. “I was happy to be alive, but I wanted to do more than just survive,” he recalls.
Young Oran spent a year recovering from his serious injuries but was permanently blinded. “I had no idea what I was going to do.” It was then that a representative from Etgarim visited him and encouraged him to join the organization and participate in its sports activities.
Almog’s grandfather, who was murdered in the restaurant bombing, had been a submarine commander in the Israeli Navy, and Oran was born with a love of the sea. Through Etgarim, Almog became an accomplished sailor and won a bronze medal at the 2007 World Sailing Championships for the blind. He says that standing on the podium to receive the medal was a major life event, which helped propel him to success. Today, he is an accomplished business leader, investor, and public speaker who speaks about resilience. Almog credits Etgarim with changing his life. “After my injury, no one really knew what I could do. Etgarim enables people to live the best possible life they can lead. They help enable those with disabilities to live the best lives they can, despite their disability. I am a good example of what Etgarim can do – to take a wounded, blind boy and get him on a boat. They said, ‘You can do it.’”
Hacohen says that the organization, which will be conducting a major fundraising campaign in the United States from May 3-10, plans to increase its work in the next several years in three areas: continuing its regular activities using sports with the disabled, expanding its activities in Sderot and the Western Negev, and helping those wounded and injured in the Swords of Iron War. “We want to expand and deepen our work, and we want to be able to provide solutions for more and more people.”
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