Tobolsk hosted the first set of training sessions for people with disabilities practicing competitive board games

30 october 2023

Tobolsk's Center for the Implementation of Youth and Prevention Programs hosted the first set of training sessions held within the framework of a volunteering project called Sports for All initiated by ZapSibNeftekhim's employees. The project is being implemented with the support of SIBUR's social investment program The Formula for Good Deeds.

The project is the brainchild of ZapSibNeftekhim's corporate volunteers. Helping to make it a reality are representatives of the Tobolsk Chapter of the All-Russian Society of the Disabled, and Siyaniye, a public youth association with the Tobolsk Center for Youth and Prevention Programs. The volunteers used their introductory training sessions to demonstrate how to play such competitive games as Culbuto, Shuffleboard and Giaccolo, as well as to explain the rules of these games. Novus and Cornhole games are going to be introduced to the playlist during upcoming practice sessions. More than 20 children and adults with disabilities were present at introductory training sessions.

Denis Kryukov, ZapSibNeftekhim's lawyer and supervisor of the Sports for All project:

“We are working with our active helpers to bring to fruition the idea of holding Tobolsk's first competitive board games championship for the disabled. We started rehearsing on weekends in the auditorium provided to us by Tobolsk's Center for the Implementation of Youth and Prevention Programs. It was essential to be able to find a warm, spacious and well-lit accessible space for our practice sessions. The first training sessions are used by the participants to try their hand at different games. Some of them happen to be able to tune in to the game at once, while others can't immediately concentrate due to being overexcited. That is precisely why we're having these training sessions. Surely children do not take these games seriously and just play for fun, but as for the more mature participants, it is the excitement of being in a competition that draws them to these competitive games.”

Natalia Redikultseva, a project participant:
“I would like to thank the project's organizers and participants. Here you come to the realization of a simple truth: to win, you have to play, first and foremost”.

Training sessions will be held every weekend for a period of two months. There are no age restrictions. The project will come to an end at the end of December with a city-wide competitive board game tournament.

Darya Cherepanova, ZapSibNeftekhim's government relations and socio-economic projects expert: 
“The ultimate objective of the Sports for All project is to get children and adults with disabilities engaged in sports at scale. Being a disabled person does not mean that they are unable to engage in sports. This project is meant to help them realize this opportunity.”