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          South Sudan War Vets Find New Life in Wheelchair Basketball

   by Jason Patinkin

   In Juba, South Sudan, veterans of the 22-year-long civil war with Sudan
   meet once a week to play wheelchair basketball. Disabled people in
   South Sudan face discrimination, high rates of substance abuse and
   unemployment, but these men show what else is possible.

   The men meet at Juba Basketball Stadium every Tuesday. Some are war
   veterans with missing legs. Others were stricken by polio.

   But all of them are athletes. These are players in South Sudan's
   Wheelchair Basketball Association.

   Gatluak Kual Luak helped found the team in 2011. He lost his leg as a
   soldier in the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2000. Like many others, he
   learned the sport as a refugee in Kenya.

   "Wheelchair basketball, it is not easy game. It is very technical," he
   said. "You need a lot of courage. You need a lot of mind. Let me say,
   you have to be committed. It has changed [the] bigger part of
   disability in me to ability. I realized that I can do anything like
   other people. Disability is not inability."

   Polio victims
   It's not only veterans who participate. James Amule got polio when he
   was two years old. He says disabled people are passed over for jobs in
   South Sudan and are called "abukarang" -- a slur.

   ''

   "I have a name. I need to be called by my name, not by a nickname, as
   my name is called James Amule. I am supposed to be called that, James
   Amule, not to be called 'that disabled person,' which is not good. Even
   if you call me that disabled person, I will not feel like I am a human
   being," he said.

   Already, the sport is changing attitudes.

   The South Sudan Basketball Federation hopes the team will compete at
   this year's Paralympics in Brazil.

   "Everybody will be cheering them, and that will give them a pride and a
   sense of representing their country," said Malik.

   Courage and pride
   For now, though, the team wants to grow the sport at home.

   Many disabled South Sudanese sink into alcoholism and poverty. What's
   more, for the last two years, South Sudan has fought another civil war
   and produced more wounded veterans.

   ''

   "We are approaching everyone out [there] to have that courage and play
   wheelchair basketball so that they also begin a new life, and they
   realize that they can still do something," said player Gatluak Kual
   Luak.

   For a nation in need of healing, this sport could be an example of how
   to move forward.

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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-vets-wheelchair-basketbal
   l/3370292.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-vets-wheelchair-basketball/3370292.html