Inspiration from a Rose - Developing Ngaiee Special School

Today marks the first ever Global Disability Summit in London. The Summit aims to "galvanise the global effort to address disability and inclusion in the poorest countries in the world and act as a start point for major change on this neglected issue".

Below is a piece that I wrote about my charity work with the Akamba Aid Fund and how my eyes were opened to the need for "inclusion" and "major change".

During a trip to Kenya in 2008, I decided to share my Physiotherapy skills with the staff of the clinic. We asked the staff to invite children with physical disabilities to visit the clinic so that they could be assessed and treated as able. However, unbeknown to us, everyone in the Akamba region is classed as a child, “a child of God”. This led to a very varied and complex array of individuals arriving at the clinic!

One morning, we were greeted by a young woman in a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are very uncommon in the bush, mainly due to the cost, but also the amount of thorns waiting to burst a tyre. Rose, a seventeen year old female had been brought to the clinic by her Aunty due to the debilitating contractures in both her hands. This incredible young woman had survived the challenges of poverty by developing skills to wash, write and feed herself with her feet. Rose’s plea to us was to help her go to school, a basic human right that she had previously been denied due to her disability. With the help of a local teacher, we were able to enrol Rose into the local mixed disability school the following term.

Ngaiee Special School was a borrowed classroom in the local primary school. It contained five children at their desks by day, whom all then slept there, on inch-thick mattresses by night. This appalling set up was not supported by the government and was pushed into the background of society by the local people.

In 2009 I was lucky enough to spend six weeks living and working in and around clinic. At the end of this trip, my father and I climbed the 16,000 feet of Mount Kenya over five days. This physically and mentally demanding challenge aimed to raise funds to help build dormitories for the children attending the school. Thanks to a great deal of support from friends and family, we completed the challenge and raised the much needed funds.

I returned for a special visit in 2011 where we officially opened the new school dormitories. This was done in typical Akamba tradition; speeches, dancing and singing were the order of the day. Rose and her peers very much enjoyed the celebrations. The positivity in the atmosphere was incredible, for people living below the poverty line, they showed such joy, love and faith. The smiles on the children’s faces that day, when they first saw inside their new dormitories, will be a memory that I will never forget.

Children with mixed disabilities playing skittles

Since then, the school has grown from strength to strength. They have flourished from 5 to 110 students with mixed disabilities and now receive some funding from the Government.

The Akamba Aid Fund has collaborated with another charity, Motivation, to allow specialist assessment of the students seating needs. We have fundraised to purchase essential wheelchairs for students to maximise their learning and development.

These achievements were only possible through the lasting dedication of the teaching staff, along with the determination of an inspirational young woman, who was driven to fulfil her human right to be educated.