Over 10,000 refugees including youths with and without intellectual disabilities from reception centers, refugee camps, and community centers across the world have been positively impacted by Special Olympics’ refugee-focused program, the Special Olympics Unified with Refugees Program, which is supported by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF). Two of these young people, Ali and Sasha, are the focus of a newly-released short feature video.

The film follows the challenging journeys of Sasha, an eight-year-old Ukrainian living in Slovakia, and Ali, an Afghan living in Spain. It shows how sports –and specifically their involvement in Special Olympics – have given them renewed hope, new goals, and opportunities to settle, make friends, and grow.

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