Vanessa Heleta

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Vanessa Heleta is a women's rights activist and Special Olympics organiser from Tonga. [1]

Special Olympics sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities

Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to 5 million athletes and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Olympics competitions are held every day, all around the world—including local, national and regional competitions, adding up to more than 100,000 events a year. Like the International Paralympic Committee, the Special Olympics organization is recognized by the International Olympic Committee; however, unlike the Paralympic Games, Special Olympics World Games are not held in the same year or in conjunction with the Olympic Games.

Tonga country in Oceania

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. The sovereign state has a population of 100,651 people, of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu.

Heleta is the founder and Director of the Talitha Project, an organisation which runs a drop-in centre for young women and girls in Tonga, providing security, counselling, training, income generation skills and support. Heleta has also worked to raise the marriage age of girls in Tonga, particularly through the ‘Let Girls be Girls’ campaign. [2]

Marriageable age is the minimum age at which a person is allowed by law to marry, either as a right or subject to parental, judicial or other forms of approval. Age and other prerequisites to marriage vary between jurisdictions, but in the vast majority of jurisdictions, the marriage age as a right is set at the age of majority. Nevertheless, most jurisdictions allow marriage at a younger age with parental or judicial approval, and some also allow younger people to marry if the female is pregnant. Until recently, the marriageable age for women was lower in many jurisdictions than for men, but in many places has now been raised to those of men.

Heleta is also the National Director of Special Olympics in Tonga. She has led athletes to participate in regional and international sports competitions such as the Asia-Pacific Special Olympics in Australia in 2013 and the World Special Olympics in Los Angeles in 2015, at which Tonga won its first gold medal in an Olympic Games. [1] [3] [4] [5] She has also run Camp Shriver, a camp experience designed by Eunice Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics movement, in Tonga specifically for young women and girls with disabilities. [6]

Special Olympics World Games sporting competition for people with intellectual disabilities

The Special Olympics World Games are an international sporting competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities, organized by the IOC-recognised Special Olympics organisation.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver sister of John F. Kennedy and founder of Camp Shriver

Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver, DSG was a member of the Kennedy family. She was a sister of President John F. Kennedy and senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. Her husband, Sargent Shriver, was the United States Ambassador to France during the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Vanessa Heleta". Pacific Community. 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  2. ↑ "Over 50 child marriages a year in Tonga". Radio New Zealand. 2017-05-30. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  3. ↑ "Intv. Vanessa Heleta from Tonga team". SBS Your Language. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  4. ↑ "100m Gold completes medal sweep for Tonga's Special Olympians". Matangitonga. 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  5. ↑ "Tomasi is Tonga's first Olympic Gold Medallist". Nuku'alofa Times. 2015-08-07. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  6. ↑ "Tongan women with intellectual disabilities learning to protect themselves from sexual abuse". www.radioaustralia.net.au. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
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