Wojtek Czyz is a successfull athlete with a ten years long international career in the field of disabled sports. Winner of four gold medalds, one silver and two bronzes over three Paralympic Games, he had the opportunity to meet disabled people all around the world gaining a clear idea about the behaviour towards disability in countries like Ukrain, Kenya, India and Thailand.
The acceptance of disability and the quality of prosthetic assistance is remarkably different all over the world: disabile people are in fact often
stigmatized as “Lame“ and there is a big lack of support, comprehension and professionality in handling disability. Parents themselves are ashamed of their own children, since they are, presumably, not able to be productive for the family general healt. These people are outsiders and they have no prospectives.
Despite this, the presence of an athlete like Wojtek on spot and the work with these families, has spotlighted the opportunity of a positive changing. His results and success showed to the families how much disabled people can be foundamental components in the social life.
Handicapped people are able to do great things when they are given the opportunities and the conditions to.
As a consequence of this experience and in quality of multiple Paralympic Champion, it has raised in Wojtek the decision to sail over the world togheter with his life partner Elena Brambilla, an athlete herself, to help people in bulding up, deal with and maintain prosthetics.
In this optic the two, together with further members, have estabilished a foundation, Sailing4handicaps, which target is to give to disable people all over the world a new opportunity of life. Sailing4handicaps will perform a circumnavigation on board of the catamaran „Imagine“ bringing on site a specialised crew, prosthetic forniture, medical assistance, support and kwoledge about the use of prosthetics and the abilities of disables, trying to open in this way new prospectives for all these people and their families.
