Teresiah has been caring for her son with a psychosocial disability for over 23 years. In that period, she has undergone exclusion and rejection from her family owing to myths and misconceptions about mental health that have long been held by her community. Teresiah has however benefitted from mental health outreach clinics that enabled her to learn about how to better care for her son as well as access medication for his illness. She is also a member of a group of persons with disabilities from Magadi, Kajiado County, and their caregivers who have been trained on financial literacy and business skills and have received seed grants to enable them start sustainable income generating ventures. This initiative is part of the BasicNeeds Model that is being implemented by Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya and CBM Global in Kajiado County.

How it all started

I first noticed that my son Peterson had a disability when he was 3 and half years old. At the time, I had two other children, my first-born son who also had a disability and a daughter.

Raising my children was quite challenging because as a casual labourer, the income I got was barely enough to meet our basic necessities. I took up jobs like working as a farm hand or collecting firewood for hotels. Whereas this income may have been enough to feed my family, it couldn’t cater for other needs such school fees for my children and my family’s medical expenses.

An option available to me to supplement my income was through taking loans from village savings groups and slowly making the repayments.

I had to make tough sacrifices

In order for me to be able to go out and make a living, I had to leave my eldest son, who had a disability, at home to look after his two siblings. Much later on after my eldest son passed away, I had no other option but to leave Peterson locked up in the house as went out in search of income. I didn’t have anyone to look after him.

However, much later on when Peterson was older, leaving him locked up in the house was not an option so I started leaving him outside the house when I went out in search of income or to run errands.

As a way of keeping him occupied while I was away, I taught him how to go to the river to fetch water for watering our goats. This is something he understood and seemed to enjoy doing. I also noticed that things he loves doing, he will do them well. Though he does them slowly, he still gets them done.

In the Maasai community where we come from, all of Peterson’s peers, own cattle as it is part of our cultural heritage. I therefore bought him one goat to start with. I am happy that from this one goat, he now has three. These have made him very proud as he is able to stand among his peers and claim ownership of goats. Having the goats has also helped keep him busy as he ensures they are released from the sleeping shed in the morning, they are fed and watered during the day, and they are back under lock and key in their shed in the evening.

I urge my community members to stop hiding their children

My advice to my community is that they should stop hiding or mistreating their children with disabilities. They should allow them to freely interact with their peers and the wider community so that they can have a sense of belonging.

I appreciate that my community will not be able to accomplish this alone because we have deep rooted cultural beliefs and misconceptions about people with disabilities. I therefore urge organizations involved in such interventions to step up engagements with my wider community. We need stronger collaboration, education and support so that we can move forward.

I am a living testimony of this because if I had not received support from as well as advise from clinicians on the type of care that Peterson needed, I don’t believe he would have made it this far. That is precisely why I work hard to ensure that he gets his medication because I understand the negative consequences of him not taking them.

This is an experience I have first-hand, as part of the reason I lost my eldest son was because I got overwhelmed. At the time I had two children with disabilities, both of whom needed medication and food among other necessities, and they only depended on me.

I have also been rejected by my family as they hold the belief that I brought this upon myself.  It is therefore important for my community to be sensitized on these matters so that we can enjoy inclusion.

You can also watch Teresiah’s story on our YouTube Channel. Click here: