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Meet Mian Absar Ali of Pakistan and Omar Hegazy of Egypt, Shirley Ryan ³Ô¹ÏÌìÌÃ91¡¯s mentees from the  Class of 2024. They recently visited Washington, D.C., to present plans to expand access to adaptive athletics in their home countries.

Absar is a former Pakistani table tennis champion who is seeking to build Pakistan¡¯s first center that provides safe spaces and sporting opportunities for people with disabilities and women who have survived gender-based violence.

Omar, who experienced limb loss after a motorcycle accident, became the first person with an amputation to swim across the Gulf of Aqaba between Jordan and Egypt. He now is working to develop a company that supports and promotes athletes with disabilities.

While in Washington, D.C., Absar and Omar presented to representatives from the , the organization that operates the Global Sports Mentoring Program, as well as the U.S. State Department that funds the program.

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Both Absar and Omar are mentees in the Global Sports Mentoring Program, which has been a partner with Shirley Ryan ³Ô¹ÏÌìÌÃ91 for the last decade.

They worked closely with Shirley Ryan ³Ô¹ÏÌìÌÃ91 program mentors ¡ª Derek Daniels, director, Adaptive Sports & Fitness Program, and Kelsey LeFevour, manager, Adaptive Sports Programs ¡ª for a three-week residency in Chicago.

Their time in Chicago included opportunities to shadow members of Shirley Ryan ³Ô¹ÏÌìÌÃ91¡¯s Adaptive Sports & Fitness Program team, and to meet leaders from the , the  and .

The residency is intended to show mentees the nuts-and-bolts logistics of running an adaptive sports program, and to demonstrate the crucial importance of community engagement and outreach.

¡°We try to help them strategize how to continue to build their own projects back home,¡± said Derek. ¡°We provide them with opportunities to see how we use sport to build community and how that spills over into advocacy as the community becomes stronger.¡±

During the program, there were meaningful opportunities for cross-cultural exchanges.

¡°There were some 12-plus-hour days, a trip to Champaign, a Chicago Fire game, a series of firsts as they tried new sports, ate new foods, talked with our athletes and networked with the early pioneers of accessibility in our great city,¡± said Kelsey. ¡°Along the way, we learned more about their worlds and it helped us think about our own, too. Dreaming is contagious, I think.¡±

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Derek emphasized that the power and meaning of sports goes far beyond physical fitness.

¡°We wholeheartedly believe that sports can create community and that the social outcomes can develop into greater opportunities for many who lack resources,¡± he said. ¡°To make that possible, you need access to the right equipment and knowledge, which is why we are doing our part: helping developing countries establish plans to support active lifestyles for people with impairments.¡±