Paralympics sports helps Syrian boy look beyond disability

Najib Alhaj Ali never saw himself as an athlete. But after his injury, he never saw himself as anything at all.

For the past two years, the 13-year-old Syrian boy has been using a wheelchair. Coming to terms with his injury and life in exile had exhausted his confidence in the future.

Now, however, as a refugee in Greece, Najib has made a discovery that is helping him to imagine himself in a new light – as a Paralympic athlete.

Two years ago, a bomb attack on his home in the city of Homs left the slight, wisp of a boy paralysed from the waist down. In spite his injury, Najib and his family made their escape from the fighting all around them, and braved a Mediterranean Sea crossing on rubber dinghy from Turkey to Greece. They were eventually granted asylum there in 2016.

Last November Najib signed up for a pilot Paralympic education project managed by the Hellenic Paralympic Committee, the Agitos Foundation and UNHCR. The project is helping to empower refugees with disabilities – particularly the young – by giving them the chance to learn sports train and even compete at the national Paralympic level. For Najib, the experience has been transformative, giving him a reason to strive. Moreover, it has given the boy, now only 13, the means to once again have something to look forward to in the future.