KUCHING: Twenty hotels in Kuching will be used as accommodations for the Para Malaysia Games (Para SUKMA) athletes.
Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said these hotels will be the Para SUKMA athlete village it is equipped with Persons with Disabilities (OKU) friendly facilities.
“As the host of the Para SUKMA, we need to ensure that the facilities for these athletes are sufficient especially for athletes on wheelchairs.
“The room doors need to be wide enough to allow easy access for them to enter and exit their rooms,” she said during her inspection visit to the Raia Hotel and Convention Centre Kuching yesterday (Aug 3).
She expressed her concern for the 260 athletes who are on wheelchairs, adding that they can have handy access to the bathroom, where they can easily use the facilities with the railings provided for them.
“There will be three main categories of para SUKMA athletes who have vision impairments, have physical impairments, and are intellectually disabled,” she said.
“Based on the request of the teams’ managers, we will accommodate athletes who are on wheelchairs to be paired with non-wheelchair athletes and with pairings such as these, the athletes in the shared room can help one another.
“Thankfully, the same committee that dealt with the accommodation for this Para SUKMA is the same committee members who dealt with the accommodation for SUKMA,” Fatimah said when talking to the press after the room visit.
Overall, there will be 20 hotels in Kuching that will accommodate the Para SUKMA athletes including for the Sarawak contingent, who will be placed at the same hotel.
The opening ceremony for the Para SUKMA XXII will be held at Raia Hotel and Convention Centre Kuching on Sept 20.
