At a playground of an ECD school on Lemule Road, Olympic Estate, Kibera slums, a 10-year old boy sits in a wheelchair and behind him is a friend to wheel him around. Born with spinal bifida, Ismael Kihimba struggles to do most things by himself. At the back of the right side of his head, there is a mark, a surgical scar. When he was a baby, a doctor performed surgery to repair his spine.
Ismael and diapers are inseparable as he has no control of his bladder. He needs urgent surgery to correct his spine and grant him some control. But the surgery is expensive for his tailor father and his mother, a kiosk vendor. They can barely make enough for him, his three sisters and a brother.
Before joining Ayani Primary where he currently studies, the class two pupil was a kindergartener here. He joined Little Rock ECD Centre when he couldn’t talk. Now he is fluent in English and can move around with a wheelchair. Ismael is among the over one million Kenyans with disabilities. He is a textbook example of children with disability struggling for an education.
Lilly Ogare, founder of Little Rock ECD Centre, says the government is not doing enough for the welfare of children with disability. While the government, for instance, donates Ksh2,040 to a child with disability, the cost of Ismael’s wheelchair is Ksh22,000. She says immediately Ismael transferred to Ayani Primary, Ismael and his mother made several trips a day from the school to the center to have his diapers changed.
“The mother could not change his diapers over there as the environment didn’t allow it. We had to make toilets and classrooms that suit him because Ismael cannot be integrated into any regular school,” says Ms Ogare.
She regrets that teachers reject enrollment of children with disability because their schools lack facilities and the teachers the skills and knowledge on how to deal with disabled children. The National Special Needs Education Survey by Voluntary Services Overseas and the Ministry of Education, in January 2014, found that the physical infrastructure and resources in many schools were inadequate and irrelevant for children with special needs and disabilities.
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The report said that most schools had infrastructure facilities such as toilets and classrooms, but some of the facilities were inaccessible to children with disabilities due to the absence of ramps and adapted desks, toilets and doors. Also, lacking were practical facilitation devices like computers to help with learning process.
In Kenya, the birth of an impaired child often places a heavy burden on family resources and drives families into poverty. Disabled people are often associated with curses and some are sent away from home, hidden or left to become beggars.
Ms Ogare argues that with existing knowledge and skills, disabilities caused by malnutrition, diseases and environmental hazards can be prevented. Modern day advancement also enables affected people to overcome their challenges while proper sensitization ends the stigma from the society. In 2003 when Mwai Kibaki ascended to power, he made primary education free. Schools flooded with pupils. Being one of the teachers, Ms Ogare was heartbroken by the many admitted who were unable to read or write.
Inspiring hope in adversity
She took it upon herself and started Little Rock ECD Center for vulnerable and children from informal sector. The number of children have been overwhelming ever since. At the Little Rock ECD Centre, children battling with hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome and the mentally handicapped find a home. Also present are orphans infected & affected by HIV and AIDS and children from extremely poor families.
Since it started in 2003, it has helped 1,021 children transition to other schools. Some 556 have transitioned to primary school and will be joined by another 70 who graduated in November this year. Other 60 children sat for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, 65 are still in high school and 7 sat for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.
For children like Ismael, the cost of surgery is expensive even when good Samaritans like Ms Ogare and Little Rock ECD Centre gives him education, therapy, nutrition and other cares. For Melody Moraa, 15, a pupil at Mbagathi Road Primary, cerebral palsy won’t determine her future. Ever smiling she depends on one of her friends to wheel her around and in class she has have another friend to write notes for her because she lacks a computer.
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Her mother, a cleaner at Little Rock ECD Centre, is always near just in case she needs to use the toilet. Even in a society that discriminates and a government that doesn’t do much for her, Melody is confident of herself and wouldn’t give anyone a reason to look down on her or feel pity for her because of her dependency. She will be a lawyer one day, she says.
Just as in Ismael’s case, Little Rock ECD Centre built toilets and classrooms at Mbagathi Primary because of Melody. In other schools, they started feeding programmes to avoid a reversal on the gains made with the disabled children as they transitioned to other schools.
Special education
The Centre continues to strive to offer the best for the disabled like therapy, nutrition, adaptive wheelchairs and hearing devices. Ms Ogare hopes the government will come up and champion for the rights of the children with disabilities as they have a place in this country.
She proposes that all teachers going through college be trained in special education so that when they meet a child with disability in any school, they can cater for him or her. This way, the likes of Ismael and Melody can study along with their friends without feeling discriminated. Parents will also not see them as a burden and society will not be ashamed of them.
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