Help Kenyan children with disabilities into school

The work to support Irindiro school is the current priority in our partnership with the Disability Community Centre.

HATW has been successful in identifying and applying for funding for these priority areas:

• completing the dormitory building and providing beds and mattresses for all the resident children

• extending electricity and water supplies to the school

• providing security fencing so that children don't wander off the school premises

• Funding for a new classroom

However, this will only provide basic essentials for the school and its 45 resident children. We now need to raise further funds to:

• equip the new classroom with desks

• provide specialist learning resources for the children e.g. the group of hearing impaired children

• provide kitchen equipment and eating utensils

Is this something which you would be able to support? We are setting a new funding target of £2,000 specifically for these items for Irindiro special school.

We have some volunteers going to visit the project this month. They will spend time with DCC and in the special disability schools with the children.

Could you offer time or special skills and go to work with our partners?

If you are interested, please contact: david@hatw.org.uk

We are also looking forward to a UK visit from the DCC project manager - we hope to link him with local projects in the South Wales are to extend his experiences and to help him build links with other disability professionals here.

Following up from our October visit to Maua, we have been busy trying to progress some of the initiatives that were highlighted in our discussions.

We were particularly moved by the need that we saw at Irindirho school and we are seeking funding to address some of the bigger challenges, especially extending the electricity and water supplies from the adjacent primary school to the special unit and providing fencing for the special school to prevent the disabled children from wandering and getting lost.

The new dormitory has been built with local community development funding, but the building needs finishing and furnishing.

Children share the few beds that are available across the boys’ and girls’ dormitories; not all of the beds have mattresses....

A corner of the girls’ dormitory has been sectioned off to provide a tiny classroom area for the 12 hearing impaired children who have special learning needs.

The lovely children at Irindirho school gave us such a warm welcome and were delighted with the small number of toys and games that we could bring with us.

Your donations will help us provide waterproof mattresses, bedding or toys for these children?

At Athi school, the work on the new classrooms is progressing and we hope to see all three completed and in use by March

Further visits are expected, with two volunteers planning a three week placement in June, working with DCC and its partners. Their special skills include special need teaching, management and training experience; we are working with Oliver Kirimi, the manager of the DCC, who will be arranging their programme visit so that they can make the most useful contributions whilst they are there.

Do you have special skills which you could share on a project visit? Contact info@hatw.org.uk

We are keen to encourage Oliver Kirimi by linking him with similar disability support projects in the UK. We hope this will provide new ideas which can be adapted for use by the DCC, and new contacts to provide encouragement and partnership exchanges. The DCC needs additional workshop equipment and Oliver would also welcome advice on sourcing the most suitable resources for the project. We are therefore planning towards Oliver making a 2 week visti to HATW and partner projects in Wales in July 2017.

Please join us in whatever way you can to make a difference for these disabled children, their opportunities are so limited currently!

Heidi Sydor