For the first time in the Maldives, a play area has been opened for children with special needs.

The play area was established at the 'Kudakudhinge Bageechaa' in the capital, Malé city.

This was an initiative taken by the Rotary Club of Malé and was unveiled during a special event held at ‘Kudakudhinge Bageechaa’ on Saturday evening.

The play area was established with the help of SIFCO.

Rotary Club revealed that the play area was established as none of the existing parks have separate equipment for children with special needs.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President of Rotary Club of Malé Abdulla Nashid revealed that the play area was established as part of three years of work and that it was just the beginning.

Nashid noted that the project commenced with a lot of support and assistance from SIFCO and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Speaking at the event, the parent of a child with special needs said that people have been taking their children to parks with nothing to play with, for more than 20 years.

However, they expressed joy in Rotary Club’s initiative to make it possible for their children with special needs to finally have an all-inclusive area for them at the children’s park.

The Rotary Group is based as NGOs worldwide, with more than 35,000 NGOs in their name.

As such, it has been operating in the Maldives since February 2013, in collaboration with Sri Lanka’s Rotary Club.

There are 1.2 million servers of the group across the globe and over 30 workers in Maldives alone.

The club hopes to observe more such parks established across the country and those interested would get technical and other support from the group.