In Kenya, COVID-19 was first confirmed on March 12, 2020. All schools were closed, and public and private sector workers advised to work from home, except those who were offering essential services. All public gatherings were restricted, and travel limitations imposed within the country, and by suspending international flights.
The Government increased health care funds and other mitigation measures to shield Kenyans against the adverse effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on health and the economy. Night curfew was also imposed.
Fortunately, the pandemic curve started decreasing at around August. Many businesses resumed and some restrictions were lifted, allowing Watoto Ciao to go back to a basic work formula, as our beneficiaries had suffered a lot the closure of our clinics and therapy activities during the lockdown.
In particular, we resumed therapy sessions at our two clinics of Nyathuna and Gathiga as we observed all safety measures in line with the government protocols. .
At the beginning of 2021, the situation improved further as the infection rate lowered and the government confirmed it and reopened schools. As no alarming figures were reported, Watoto Ciao staff slowly went back to normal activities by re-opening its main office clinic at Kingeero. By end of January we had resumed all our clinics, finding most of our children with disabilities regressed on achieved milestones due to the lock-down inactivity and more socially marginalized than ever. Unfortunately, by end of February 2021 Kenya started experiencing the third wave of COVID-19 and while the 47 Counties have been preparing for the worst COVID-19 scenario, we were again forced to drastically reduce our services. We are currently engaged in lobbying for urgent vaccination of children with disabilities and their caregivers.
Challenges faced by Watoto Ciao Children with Disabilities and their Caregivers

Covid 19 brought a major blow as we were forced to close our clinics and suspend major activities for six months (March-August 2020). During this time, Watoto Ciao’s beneficiaries faced massive challenges though none of our children passed away due to COVID-19.
In fact, the lock-down response measures disproportionally disrupted W.C. activities from March to August 2020 and beyond, dropping the overall treatment services by around 70% during the concerned period with respect to the same months in 2019. Just to mention, comparing project results achieved in 2019 and 2020, data analysis shows that new cases screened dropped by 60%. Similarly, while the number of cases treated was almost stable with a slight decrease of 16.6%, therapy sessions provided to them dropped by 76.7%, referrals for further treatment by 36.4% and provision of orthopedic devices at our clinics by 83.5%. Due to the strict government measures to minimize the infection, Watoto Ciao staff had to reduce CWDs’ home visits by 72.1%, while volunteers by 76.5%. Technical training to them was also drastically minimized and not compensated by online training due their scarce connection capacity, while awareness creation among community members was reduced by 68%. This hard scenario confirms the clinical evidence of CWDs regressive conditions observed by WC staff when activities slowly resumed in September 2020. Moreover, this caused additional health hazards to the kids, overwhelming isolation, and exclusion from vital services. Besides, due to schools’ special units’ inadequate sanitation standards, most of CWDs (80%) enrolled in class remained locked out, even when other pupils had resumed attendance. In addition, the economic hardships raised by the lock-down hit the hardest their caregivers relying mostly in the informal economy, further reducing support to them.
In a nutshell the followings are the main problems faced:
- Severe health risks due to lack of proper protection gears at home: e.g. face masks, sanitizers, clean running water
- Severe regression from achieved milestones due to therapy disruption
- Very harsh quarantine and self-isolation for the kids deprived of therapeutic and psychological support, further increasing their exclusion and discrimination
- Most caregivers being low-income earners and casual workers, the lock-down reduced their access to basic life commodities and pushed them further into economic instability
- Massive stress due to fear of uncertainty, isolation and distancing, enhanced by lack of psycho-social support.
- Disrupted work and personal life forcing reorganization of family life
Challenges faced by Watoto Ciao’s staff in 2020 due to COVID-19

Watoto Ciao’s staff faced the followings challenges:
- Fear of getting infected and of the unknown
- Availability of PPEs required when visiting homes for home-based program
- Limited capacity to reach CWDs for home-based therapy due to their high number compared with technical staff available
- Limited space to carry out therapy at CWDs’ homes
- Disruptions in work and personal family life
Overview of strategies Watoto Ciao adopted to respond to the above-mentioned challenges.
During the 2020 lock-down, Watoto Ciao staff:
- drastically increased follow ups via phone calls to provide psychological support to caregivers;
- provided face masks and other basic protective gears to those who could not afford them;
- linked needy beneficiaries with government or private entities for support through cash transfer, food, protective gears, sanitizers and other items. Some received monthly cash from the National Council for People with Disabilities.
Starting from September 2020 as restrictions were partially lifted, Watoto Ciao staff slowly resumed health support to CWDs by
- shifting from clinic therapy to safer home-based treatment where conditions allowed
- supporting CWDs’ physiotherapy at local public health facilities;


In 2021, in response to the above-mentioned challenges, Watoto Ciao flagged off the following project
Supporting disabled children through and beyond the Coronavirus outbreak