The 2025 Spe­cial Olympics Na­tion­al Games of­fi­cial­ly kicked off with the Boc­ce com­pe­ti­tion on May 10, set­ting the stage for a month-long dis­play of tal­ent by ath­letes with in­tel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties.

Some 800 ath­letes, sup­port­ed by 200 coach­es, 350 vol­un­teers, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 20 schools and in­sti­tu­tions, will take part in the Games, which run through June 14. As the ma­jor spon­sor of the Spe­cial Olympics Na­tion­al Games, the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion con­tributed TT$100,000 and co­or­di­nat­ed the ac­tive in­volve­ment of staff vol­un­teers and dig­i­tal part­ners such as RSC and Tech­Flex Ltd.

Cen­tral to the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion’s pres­ence at the Games is the launch of its Safer In­ter­net To­geth­er (SIT) Cam­paign, an ini­tia­tive of­fer­ing in­ter­ac­tive tech ses­sions for ath­letes and their fam­i­lies dur­ing the Games. Top­ics in­clude on­line safe­ty, an­ti-cy­ber­bul­ly­ing, re­spon­si­ble de­vice use, and ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty tools for neu­ro­di­verse users, to en­sure safe dig­i­tal en­gage­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease, at the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, Pieter Verkade, CEO of Dig­i­cel T&T, and La Toya Gopaul, Board Di­rec­tor of the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion, both em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of sport and tech­nol­o­gy in build­ing a more ac­ces­si­ble fu­ture, and proud­ly reaf­firmed the com­pa­ny’s long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to the em­pow­er­ing per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties The Games al­so re­ceived strong sup­port from the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs and the Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

The re­lease added, "The Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion cel­e­brates the courage and de­ter­mi­na­tion of every ath­lete and looks for­ward to sup­port­ing the Games in the weeks to come."