Support 100 disabled youth with Assistive devices.

Dear Friends, In the last update, I informed you that we had changed our name from Kenya Disabled Action Network to Action Network for the Disabled (ANDY);it is indeed expected that this new status comes with lots of challenges and responsibilities as we are now a national organization responding to the needs of Young People with Disabilities countrywide. My colleagues have been upbeat about this development and putting in much needed efforts to realize our dream at a national level. This only means we have been spending time to plan on what it entails to work at a national level and looking for the required resources to fulfill those responsibilities as well. Many of you have remained steadfast in making sure that our objectives are met due to your constant support and the belief you have in our initiative, I want to extent a personal THANK YOU and from our team including those that we work with. We are both committed to ensure that no young person with any challenge is left behind just on the mere account of having a disability; it is our belief that we can indeed eradicate poverty if persons with disabilities are adequately empowered to lead independent and sustainable lives. This brings me to one case we have dealt with in the recent past and through your donation-a positive impact has been achieved in the life of Martin. Martin is a wheelchair user and had acquired relevant academic qualifications that warranted employment. This was however not the case, he remained in the cold for quite a long time until he was introduced to our initiative and took part in a one-month training on employability that is run from our office. He came every morning on his old wheelchair that he had stayed with for ages since schooling time and when job advertisements came out from one of the Government`s Ministry, we encouraged him to apply and he was invited for an interview. The panel was surprised to see him at first and was wondering if the CV they had shortlisted and prioritized as the best was indeed his! To cut the long story short, Martin nearly lost that job even after emerging successful until the Ministry decided to call us as he had put the name of our initiative as his referees. We managed to convince them that Martin would indeed work just as anybody else and we offered to support them whenever they needed support to ensure that it was indeed a good learning experience. And to ensure that Martin was also taken seriously and was able to commute easily to the work station, we bought him a wheelchair through your support that he is now using. Colleagues at his work station have learn`t a great deal from him based on one of the visit we paid them and they are excited to have that particular opportunity! This is what it means supporting our project, you do not only change an individual (Martin) you change the entire attitude of those who haven’t had knowledge about disability when they see a person with disability performing beyond their expectations. When you enable us assist a person with a mobility aid, it is replicated in many ways as they can lead decent independent lives and are able to participate actively in economic activities. THANK YOU SO MUCH!