SHIKONGO Ananias

Type of Impairment
Vision impairment (Athlete, 11 Nov 2019)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (namibiasport.com.na, 19 Dec 2011)

Impairment Details
He lost his left eye in an accident at age three when his brother tried to shoot birds using a bow and arrow. Three years later he lost the vision in his right eye after he was kicked by a donkey. "My parents encouraged me all the time, saying that I was not the only visually impaired person in the world. They also found me a school for the visually impaired. In the beginning I had to have a guide to walk, but later I learned how to walk with a cane and after that I did not even need a cane anymore." (namibian.com.na, 14 Apr 2016; namibiasport.com.na, 19 Dec 2011)

Guide
Even Tjiviju; Sem Shimanda (sportonthemove.org, 05 Mar 2020)

General
POSTPONED RETIREMENT
He initially planned to retire after the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. He then decided to even go further and pursue the 2024 Games in Paris after the 2020 Games was postponed. He said he gained a renewed motivation. "I have to confess that I wasn't ready. I felt I was not in top shape had the Games been held in the summer of 2020. The extra year would help me to get back into shape and be at my peak. I want to retire after the 2024 Games in Paris. I am still strong mentally, physically and spiritually." (neweralive.na, 29 Oct 2020; confidentenamibia.com, 09 Jul 2020)

FOUNDATION
In 2016 he co-founded the Sport on the Move Foundation, which aims to offer support to Namibian Para athletes. The project began in 2015 as the Run4Rio initiative, created by Dutch communications professional Elisa Ostet to help Namibian Para athletes prepare for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He also took up a course in marketing to acquire skills in promoting Para sports through the foundation. "Ostet has changed a lot in my life. She started creating a website for me, looking at creating income. It was a way of supporting me while she was very far away in Europe and I was in Africa. After Rio [2016 Paralympic Games] the main [drive] was to create a foundation, for the support Elisa and my friends and others were giving me. I wanted to create a foundation because it is not only me. My friends, my [training] partners, I know they were suffering the same way I had been suffering. I decided to enrol in a marketing course at a local university so as to acquire skills which would help me communicate better with authorities. There is very little awareness about Para sports and the change that it can bring for the impaired. I want to raise funds through the foundation to assist potential athletes, make them competition ready and that can be only be possible if their day-to-day life is secure." (neweralive.na, 29 Oct 2020; sportonthemove.org, Sep 30 2019; paralympic.org, 18 Sep 2019; southerntimesafrica.com, 02 Mar 2019)

FURTHER EDUCATION
In 2020 he completed a course in physiotherapy at the Nomad Institute in Windhoek, Namibia. "The struggles of an athlete are unending. We are put in the hands of so many physiotherapists and not all do a good job. At times we do not get the best massages during competitions and it affects performance. Now that I have been in good and bad hands, I feel I am in a better position to say what athletes need." (Sport on the Move Foundation Facebook page, 22 Feb 2020; thenational.ae, 14 Nov 2019; thepatriot.com.na, 03 Aug 2018)