Caregivers of children living with cerebral palsy in Elgeyo Marakwet, have appealed to the County government, to establish clinics in all health centres, complete with equipment and personnel for people living with the condition.
Janet Kiprotich, a mother of a 13-year-old child living with cerebral palsy, said most of them are forced to travel all the way to the Iten County Referral Hospital, to access services.
Speaking at Iten sportsground, yesterday, during celebrations to mark Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day, Mrs. Kiprotich said transporting such children is quite expensive, especially given that they have to attend therapy sessions once or twice a week.
“I would like to appeal to health authorities in the County, to ensure we can access health services in health centres near our homes, to save us the transport challenges,” she said.
She added that due to their condition, the children often suffer from low immunity, thus requiring medical services frequently.
She explained that while the government and religious institutions have established special schools, some children such as her child, who cannot speak nor walk, cannot be taken to school leaving parents with the burden of teaching them basic skills.
Mrs. Kiprotich said due to lack of professionals to handle children outside the education system, she has turned to social media to learn how to home-school her child. She however observed that she is only lucky because she can access the internet, noting there are many who cannot access it either for lack of gadgets or knowledge.
She noted that caring for such children is quite complicated, whether one is formally employed or working in the informal sector. She said she relies on house helps to take care of her child when she is at work, but feared that those not formally employed and cannot afford to pay house help, find it impossible to leave the child behind to go engage in any income activity.
She is calling on the government to consider waiving taxes for working parents, who also double-up as caregivers for special needs children just like they do to workers with disability.
Mrs. Kiprotich thanked the National Council for People with Disability (NCPD), for giving them wheel chairs, saying they will assist in the mobility of the children.
The NCPD County Coordinator Lydia Matende said her Organization will continue availing assistive devices for people with disability and appealed to them to come-out and register, so that they can be assisted.
By Alice Wanjiru
