By definition, Devi Acharya (right), 30, is disabled, but that hasn’t defeated her willpower.
The game coordinator at the Nepal Spinal Cord Injury Sports Association, she also leads the women’s basketball team of the Association.[break]
A sports fanatic from schooldays, Acharya became paralyzed from her chest down after a 2004 accident. Four years of depression and some time at a rehab center, the Butwal native found her solace in sports.
It has been two years since she has been playing basketball, and now, even swimming. Everyday, unless it rains, she says her team of five, along with two extra players, practices in the nearby school’s basketball court in Jorpati.
She is happy for the fact that other disabled people look up to them and express their wish to play.
“We can be role models for them and show people that we can do something [despite our disability],” she says.
But problems persist. Lack of wheelchair maintenance workshops and also being deficient of sports wheelchairs, she said, at times makes playing difficult. But despite that, they are continuing, and according to Acharya, they “are a good team.”
Currently, Acharya, along with her teammates, is practicing for the second national games in Butwal in November. As a coordinator for the games, she says her “target is to take 10 teams and 70 players to Butwal” and make the event a success.
Acharya, who lives by herself and supports her own living, says sports makes her happy and relaxed and is also a good form of exercise for disabled people like herself.
She believes that no form of disability should hinder anyone to realize their goals.
“We have to make our own way,” she says. “[And with sports] we’re making a way, looking for opportunities and also creating them.” (BB)
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