Dubai: Did you know that you could enhance the life of someone with an intellectual disability by merely purchasing a product? Procter and Gamble are here to give you an opportunity to make a difference as you shop for household items.

The FMCG giants have kicked off "Create Heroes", their month-long Special Olympics Middle East and North Africa (Mena) donation drive, aimed at supporting children and adults with intellectual disabilities throughout the region.

The company will, for the fourth year in a row, make donations to Special Olympics Mana from the sales of many of its leading products, including Tide, Ariel, Head and Shoulders, Pampers, Gillette and Braun.

Ayman Abdel Wahab, the Special Olympics international regional managing director, was all praise for P&G for their long-lasting support in promoting the various events of his organisation.

"Procter and Gamble have been our supporters for over 25 years. ..they started helping us in the Mena region some three years ago and this is the fourth year.

"They have helped our organisation increase the number of athletes which is our main aim because we only have about 130,000 athletes registered from the region, when there are 12 million intellectually disabled people here," he said.

Wahab said the Games had witnessed tremendous growth since their inception a decade ago.

"We started way back in 1998 with the Mena games in Egypt, when just 13 of the 23 countries participated with about 200 athletes. But for the last Games in Abu Dhabi we had.. around 1,500 athletes."