Susan Liyai, headteacher at Chesikaki FYM Special School for the intellectually disabled in Chesikaki, Bungoma County, holds a sample of an incomplete crochet doormat that has been hand made by learners in her school. On the table are also serviette holders and hairbands made of beads, also handmade by learners. These are part of the skills being imparted on learners in her school – all of whom have psychosocial and intellectual disabilities – as part of equipping them with skills for self reliance once they complete their education. Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya through funding from ECOM foundation is supporting learners from this school with mental health and psychosocial support services in addition to other supports like school uniforms and dignity kits. Photo by BNBR

Susan shares her story below:

My desire to help children drove me into this profession

I have been a headteacher in this school for about a year and a half. Previously, I worked as a deputy head teacher in another Special School for about 11 years.

I chose to be a special education teacher out of a desire to help children. I used to see the plight of children with disabilities in my village, who didn’t have any help. They didn’t posses any type of skills to assist them to survive on their own.

I therefore had a strong conviction that if I had skills in special education, I would be able to come back and assist these children. My desire was to impart them with skills for daily living which they were in dire need of, and no one was offering to assist them.

This community shuns children with disabilities

In this community around the Mt. Elgon region, there is a lot if stigma associated with disability. Most parents see children with disabilities as useless. They are embarrassed, ashamed and don’t want to be associated with these children.

In fact, most in the community believe that having such a child is a curse and in addition to this, they don’t believe these children will amount to anything in life. Parents will therefore prioritize the needs of their children without disabilities over the child with a disability.

As a headteacher, I have interacted with many parents who tell me that they would like to first focus on their other children and ensure they complete their education before they address the needs of the children with disabilities.

Our learners feel appreciated

As a school, we are grateful to the program for supporting our learners to access monthly mental health and psychosocial support services at Chesikaki Dispensary which we share a fence with. The reality is that most of their parents don’t pay much attention to their medical needs, and this had a negative long-term effect on their wellbeing and even on their education outcomes.

It is usually disheartening that a lot of these parents don’t even know the diagnosis of their children, let alone have any of their medical records. They stopped caring once they noticed that their child has some kind of disability.

We also appreciate the supply of uniforms and other support items to these learners by the program. When given the option to choose our priority needs, we felt uniforms were a priority for these learners because of identity. As this is a day school, these children have to make their way to and from school often times alone or under the care of their siblings.

There are many instances where they strayed during these trips to and from school and tracing them become difficult because there was no way to identify them. We once lost a learner, and it took months to trace her whereabouts because she had no uniform therefore tracing her was not easy. However, now that they have uniforms with the school’s branding, it will be easier to trace them and have them brought back to school.

We also felt uniforms were important because they bring a sense of equality. When all of them are in the same uniform, they have a sense of equality as no one feels above the other.

Our current pressing need is a dormitory

Right now, we are lobbying our local leadership to equip this school to become a boarding school so as to mitigate a lot of the dangers our learners are exposed to. For instance, because these learners mostly come to school unaccompanied by an adult, they are exposed to so many dangers.

On average, these learners walk for between 6 to 10 kilometres to and from school everyday. We have had three instances of the learners getting involved in accidents such as being run over by motorbikes. We also have female learners exposed to abuse. Case in point, two have actually been impregnated and are not in a position to say who the perpetrators were.

As an administration, we appreciate any support we can receive to ensure these learners are able to receive an education and cultivate skills they can use to become self reliant. We offer them skills such as weaving, basket making, bead making, knitting and crocheting, of which we can see they are embracing.

I am confident that these learners can achieve self reliance if such skills can be nurtured well.