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Kremena Koutsoukou

Microsoft Hellas sponsors the Special Olympics. They will take place between June 20 and July 4, 2011 in Athens. Except for the software, which costs $2.5 million the company will participate in the volunteer program. 100 Microsoft employees from all South Easter European branches will arrive in Athens, in order to support the players. Among the volunteers there will be many Bulgarians, assured Konstantinos Loukas – deputy CEO of Microsoft Hellas.

2011 Athens Special Olympics will be organized in honor of their creator Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who was sister of President John Kennedy and died in August this year. 69 of her relatives will arrive in Athens, in order to honor her memory. 7 500 sportspeople from 185 countries will participate in the Olympics and they will be supported by 25 000 volunteers. The Greek capital will greet over 40 000 of their family members.

On the Olympics there will be many events organized, which will familiarize the public with the problems connected with integrating the disabled people in society. The campaign is under the auspices of the President of Greece Karolos Papoulyas and it has full material and moral support from the Greek government.

The chairwoman of the organizational committee Yanna Despotopoulou does not hide her happiness from the example Microsoft Hellas gives by volunteering in the Olympics. According to her volunteering is extremely important and every citizen, as part of society, needs to contribute so that the sportspeople do not feel “different”.

Konstantinos Loukas: “It is a great honor for us to support this event, in the center of which is the person. We need to understand and accept the different but also to show inner strength and the unlimited possibilities a human has.”

The sports movement for disabled people Special Olympics was created in 1968. The games take place every two years and one year are the summer Olympics and the other – the winter ones. Movement gives opportunity to over 3 million people to show their abilities. Each year 550 000 sportspeople from the US, 500 000 from Europe and 700 000 from China participate in the global movement called Special Olympics. The participants from Greece are over 12 000. The ones who want to participate need to be over 8 years old and to have a medical certificate proving their illness.