Camp Abilities Bangladesh was the first of its kind sports camp in Bangladesh and a collaborative initiative between Camp Abilities USA and Heroes for All. Dr. Rehnuma Karim is the Director of Camp Abilities Bangladesh which is being operated under the umbrella of Heroes for All’s annual special projects. The first camp in Bangladesh took place at “National Women Complex, Dhaka” from January 16 to 19, 2018.

One of the goals of the camp was to build awareness on creating space and opportunities for visually impaired children in Bangladesh to thrive as normal citizens of the country feeling confident and independent to achieve whatever they dream of. The other goal was to promote empathy and leadership quality among the students from different educational institutions who hardly ever connected or communicated with individuals with disabilities such as blindness. The students were trained as camp counselors for two days to be paired up with the visually impaired children. They were trained by Dr. Lauren Lieberman and her team of experts ( Dr. Ali and Dr. Megan) from the USA. Dr. Lieberman is an esteemed researcher, a faculty and an expert in inclusive sports for individuals with disabilities and the founder and Director of Camp Abilities USA.

40 visually impaired students of Assistance for Blind Children (ABC) took part in the camp who were supervised by 40 student councilors. They paired up to play outdoor games like cricket, football, and other athletics activities. Mashrafee Bin Mortaza and Mushfiqur Rahim, the national heroes of Bangladesh’s National Cricket team also took time off their schedule amidst an ongoing international match to attend the camp to motivate the children.