Education for children with disabilities, Kenya

Regional factors such as the continuing severe drought in northern and eastern Kenya, and the global crises which are causing dramatic increases in prices of basic foods and fuel, continue to add to the challenges experienced by our projects to educate children with disabilities in Kenya.

Despite this, we were delighted when staff and students at our Special Education Unit in Thinu, central Kenya, recently took some time out to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the school’s opening. This is a major achievement not only for them, but also represents a landmark for us at Advantage Africa, since we supported the school from its inception, through construction and to its opening to the first students in 2012.

The facility is now educating 45 pupils with intellectual disabilities and over the years the staff have developed a ‘transition programme’ whereby each year several of the older students graduate, to start productive activities as young adults in their home communities. We are planning for a further three students to graduate from the school in November 2022, making spaces for new children with learning disabilities to be enrolled, thus continuing the intake of new children into the school’s second decade.