Best Buddies hosts first Friendship Walk

Best Buddies Macao Association launched its first Friendship Walk on Sunday at the lower square of Sai Van Lake, attracting nearly 300 participants.
The association’s universal mission is to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-on-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Founded in Macau in May, the local organization has held 93 activities, which drew over 1,900 participants, including over 630 buddies with IDD.
Elizabeth Tsui, executive director of Best Buddies Macao Association, admitted they were unaware of how to muster such a crowd, but that the government has “thoroughly” supported them.
“Best Buddy Friendship Walk is to raise awareness to the community about including people in society,” Elizabeth Tsui told the Times.
The association’s “Best Buddies Program” currently runs in a few middle schools and colleges, as well as a “citizens’ program” that allows adult volunteers to commit to serving “one on one” friendship in their free time.
Elizabeth also said they aim to attract a larger crowd next year for the friendship walk to have a “bigger social impact” in the city.
A participant, Rishi Tirupari, said that the city needs such activities to integrate the “best buddies” into the social environment.
“You don’t want them to feel different, you want them to feel like they’re part of the community. So doing more of these activities is really good for their morale and they’ll feel more social,” says Rishi.
Best Buddies is a non-profit organization headquartered in Miami. With participants in 54 countries, the association has reached 1,900 university and secondary school chapters across the globe. Staff reporter