by Alex Osei-Boateng

ACCRA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's contingent for the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, left here on Thursday to acclimatize ahead of the world event scheduled for March 14 to 22.

The Ghanaian team, made up of 16 intellectually disabled athletes and four coaches, will join 7,000 athletes from over 170 countries and regions worldwide to compete for laurels at the Games in 24 events.

Team Ghana will compete in 100m, 200m and 400m as well as seven-a-side football contest.

After winning four silver medals in athletics during the 2015 edition of the Games in Los Angeles, USA, Ghana's Special Olympics side is poised to perform better than they did four years ago.

Special Olympics, which was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a sister of former US President John F. Kennedy, who both had a sister who was intellectually disabled, seeks to be a catalyst to foment change in society, where the intellectually disabled was not looked down upon but accepted in society.

A total of 3,000 coaches, 1,500 officials and 3,000 special guests will also be part of this year's Special Olympics Games, described as the largest sports humanitarian event in the world in 2019.