In Kenya, disabled children are affected by the following factors:
- Myths and false beliefs: In many traditional African cultures, disability is considered a curse. People with disabilities are rejected by their families of origin and regarded as pariahs. Affected families are also highly stigmatized in communities. These myths and beliefs are still very present and disabled children are still considered an embarrassment or a disgrace to the family and therefore neglected and left in the last place.
- Neglect of disabled children: Many families with disabled children are still very ignorant about the causes of disability and how they treat them so they do not move in search of support as in other circumstances. For this reason, disability-related needs have not yet activated the interest of the general public and in fact have not activated possible supporters and financiers on concrete projects.
- Low income: Employment opportunities in slums are scarce and generally provide very low incomes linked to tight survival. This scenario leaves little chance of support for disabled children by their families.
- Large families: Many families have an average of 5-6 children with their mother as a single head of household. Many of the children are of the same age with differences of one to two years of age. Due to the urgency of providing for many children, little attention is given to those who are unable to provide for themselves.
- Inadequate and limited rehabilitation services: Institutions and programmes for the rehabilitation of disabled children are few and those available are poorly equipped to respond adequately to needs. The available health services offer basic medical treatment. Specialised treatments are mainly offered in private clinics and the costs are often far beyond the economic means available to the majority.
- Congested living spaces: Many families live in one-room compound shacks without igenic services, water, and electricity. All this leads to extremely complex situations of liveability when there is the presence of a disabled person. This also applies to the inadmissibility of the few public services available in the area
- Minimum services suitable for disabled people: Kenya has not yet developed adequate policies to make service providers take into account the needs of people with disabilities. This restricts or prevents the participation of disabled children in the usual activities accessible to each child.
- Minimal government intervention: At school level, the number of special classes available for disabled children in public schools is still very limited. In addition, these units are poorly equipped and economically insufficiently supported by the
“You are not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able to by the abilities you have.”
8. Addressing social stigma
The social stigma applied to children with disabilities and their caregivers deserves a clarification. A 2018 research (1) exploring condition of women caring for a disabled child or relative found that the issue of disability was barely mentioned by them, stating that the presence of a person with disability in the family was not considered an obstacle itself. The real obstacle was perceived to be the others’ twisted perception of that condition. Actually, what women suffered was the social stigma – perpetrated by the family and the community – that affected both people with disability and their caregivers.
Disabled children and their families are “forgotten, neglected and often discriminated” in large parts of the world due to ignorance and stigmatization. This lead to disabled children and their relatives becoming isolated and thus “invisible”.
Watoto Ciao calls for avoiding disabled children to be neglected or at most to be sent to special homes. It rather advocates to raising them within the family.
It is true that the diagnosis of a disability used to be stigma for life. However, today there are more therapy possibilities for children and integration in the regular schools is a big step for Kenya, a country in which most disabled children currently don’t attend school in any form.
Watoto Ciao educates families to take better care of their disabled children at home. At the same time, it is trying to clear up prejudices at local schools.
Children with small disabilities are often excluded from school, because of fear and discrimination and people may think disability is a contagious disease. Building up the caregivers’ awareness is an important step, as it achieves more in the long term than the support of isolated treatment.