Children with disabilities often face a myriad of challenges, including stigmatization, molestation or losing their track due to a lack of intellectual coordination.
It is for this reason that well-wishers have constructed a twin dormitory for mentally challenged children at Esani Special Junior School in Gesima Ward, Kitutu Masaba Constituency, Nyamira County.
Addressing the press after commissioning the project, which has a capacity of 50 girls and boys, respectively, a member of the Board of Trustees at the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya, Prof. Julia Ojiambo, noted the project would finally minimize chances of child abuse which occur within the community.
Prof. Ojiambo expressed optimism that parents who were still holding their disabled children at home for fear of the stigma and related challenges would henceforth enrol them in the school after the environment was made conducive.
However, she explained that the project, which cost Sh3.4 million and took one year and a half to complete, was yet to be furnished adequately and appealed for more donations.
Applauding the parents and school management for supporting the construction, Prof. Ojiambo also thanked Peponi School in Nairobi for partially furnishing the dorms with beds.
She appealed for more double-deckers and called upon the school fraternity to ensure the project was well maintained to last long.
The School Head Teacher Mr. Justus Magasi, applauded the donors for assisting the school population, which stands at 115, thirty of them being boarders.
Magasi said there was a need to construct more classrooms and workshops too so that the learners could complete school with ample skills to become useful members of society.
He said the school had four teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission but noted they were inadequate for the special needs children.
The NFDK team was on a three-day mission to commission various projects in Narok, Kisii, Nyamira and Migori Counties.
By Jane Naitore
