Sport is a confidence-booster for para-swimmer Humairo Hedir, 13
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Humairo Hedir, a 13-year-old who has distal arthrogryposis, is a more confident girl after learning how to swim and breaking the women’s 50m backstroke S7 national record twice in 2024.
PHOTO: NORAINI MASLAN
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SINGAPORE – Humairo Hedir, 13, has a fear of falling and finds it hard to play sports. The teenager was born with distal arthrogryposis – a disorder characterised by joint deformities that restrict movement in the hands and feet – and has undergone several corrective procedures.
But, thanks to the initiatives under the Disability Sports Master Plan (DSMP)
Her mother Noraini Maslan shared with The Straits Times how Humairo was 11 when she started swimming under the national SwimSafer programme, which teaches sport proficiency and water survival skills.
She then received an invitation from a KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital family support group for Humairo to attend an ActiveSG swimming session as part of therapy.
But the coaches there noticed her buoyancy and talent and asked her to join the Para Sport Academy’s swimming programme in late 2022.
Training thrice a week at the Bukit Batok and Jurong West swimming complexes, the Hillgrove Secondary School student improved tremendously and set the women’s 50m backstroke S7 national record of 1min 29.14sec in March, before slashing it to 1:21.98 in September.
Humairo said: “Swimming helps to build my muscles and improve my flexibility. When I go faster, I find it relaxing and it helps me in terms of body movement, builds my confidence, discipline and stamina.
“I’m thankful for my family who take turns to take me to training, and support me at my swimming meets, and also my coach who teaches us patiently.
“I hope they are proud of my achievements. I want to keep breaking my own personal best and hope one day I can represent Singapore at international meets.”
Launched in 2016, the DSMP aims to raise awareness of disability sports and expand access and opportunities for sports participation among persons with disabilities (PWDs).
At the Singapore Disability Sports Awards on Nov 20
Among these, DSMP 2024 wants to enhance awareness of disability sport and inclusive sport activities by recommending that all mainstream schools conduct programmes for students to experience disability sport by 2028.
Currently, about a third of mainstream schools offer such opportunities. First Toa Payoh Primary School is one of them and, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, it had para sports like boccia, goalball and sitting volleyball for kids from Primary 3 to 6 for its annual sports day.
It started partnering the Singapore Disability Sports Council in 2020 to invite para-athletes to share the experience of wheelchair basketball, blindfolded football and blindfolded running with their students.
Post-pandemic, it now features regular and para sports in alternate years for its sports day, which has been renamed Sports For All.
Jasmine Kok, its head of department for physical education, Learning for Life Programme, and aesthetics, said: “We started para sports because we saw value in the takeaways when we conduct these sports with them.
“Through the facilitation, the teachers will inculcate the values of grit and resilience in them.
“Sometimes things are difficult, but that is when you bring out your courage to try. Some of our students come from under-privileged backgrounds, so we hope that through this experience, they are also able to translate these values back in their daily lives.
“Also, many of our students are familiar with Olympians like Joseph Schooling but not so aware of our para-athletes who also represent Singapore. So we thought that through this programme, we can raise awareness not just among students, but also our staff.”
The 35-year-old shared that while there was initial apprehension among the students as they were used to being able to move around freely, they started to be more interested and engaged after trying out the new sports. Some have even asked to play boccia and goalball during PE classes.
Parents of PWDs are heartened to know that there are plans to make mainstream schools more inclusive through DSMP 2024, and Noraini hopes there can also be direct school admission (DSA) for children who are talented in para sports.
She said: “I hope that the schools will be more supportive. Why not have DSA for kids like Humairo and give them a chance to be in the Singapore Sports School as well?”
