Helping children with disabilities

return to school in Turkana

Ensuring every child in Kenya has the opportunity for an educated
future
Andrew Brown
UNICEFKenya/2021/LameckOrina
19 October 2021

As the school day finishes in Lodwar, Turkana, a group of boys runs out
onto a sandy football pitch between their classrooms. There is a flash of
colour beneath their pink school shirts, which some of them peel off to
reveal international football club shirts beneath. They run up and down
the pitch with tremendous energy, gesturing at each other. Finally, 13-
year-old Ezra, wearing an Atletico Madrid t-shirt, gets a clear shot at the
goal. He lines it up and shoots. The ball swerves past the goalkeeper
and lands behind the goalpost, kicking up a small cloud of dust as it
lands. Ezra throws up his arms in celebration. But there is little or no
sound from the players, all of whom are fully or partially deaf.

St Bernadette School for the Deaf provides education for children with
hearing impairments, some of whom also have other disabilities. The
children come from across Turkana County, including from Kakuma
refugee camp, where Ezra lived with his parents. “Life was very hard in
the camp,” he explains in sign language. “I had dropped out of school
and was living on the street with my parents. We were very poor. I used
to beg a lot in the streets. Even getting food and clothes was a problem.
I thought a lot about how I could change my life. I decided to go back to
school.”

Ezra was found on the streets by a child protection officer from the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which works with UNICEF on
education and child protection in the camp. They soon realized that he
was not a refugee. Ezra’s family came from the surrounding area and
had moved to the camp in search of work. So LWF arranged for him to
come back to school, paying his transport and boarding fees. “My
parents were happy for me to go back to school,” Ezra says. “I enjoy
being here, my life is much nicer. Now I know how to read and write. I
want to stay at school until I’ve finished my education.”
Supporting schools

Elizabeth Achwa is Senior Teacher at St Bernadette School for the Deaf.

She says that children with disabilities are often not in school for a range
of reasons. “This can include the high poverty level of families who do
not have the basic items or resources that these children require,” she
says. “There is also a lot of stigma and denial from parents, who don’t
want to accept that their children have disabilities and prefer to hide
them away from the community.”

Enrolment at the school was also affected by COVID-19, with 84 children

attending now, compared to 112 before. “The COVID-19 pandemic
impacted us a lot,” Elizabeth adds. “We lost a lot of children who went
home during the school closures. Many of the girls disappeared and
have still not come back.”

Working with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, Elizabeth does her
best to track down and engage families of children with disabilities in the
Lodwar area. “I try to communicate with and sensitize the parents in
neighbouring communities,” she says. “I tell them that disability does not
mean inability. These children can live a normal life, provided they get a
good education. And the schools and institutions are there to cater for
their needs.”

In recent years, UNICEF has supported St Bernadette School with

teacher training and school supplies, including sanitary pads for girls.
Together with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF is also working towards
ensuring that every child can attend an inclusive classroom in their local
school.
UNICEFKenya/2021/LameckOrinaEzra in his classroom at St Bernadette School for the Deaf

Out of school children

In partnership with Educate A Child, a programme of the Education

Above All foundation, UNICEF is supporting the Government of Kenya to
bring more children with disabilities back to school, through Operation
Come to School phase 2. A baseline survey has recently been
conducted in 16 counties to understand the reasons why children,
including those with disabilities, are not enrolling or staying in school.

The survey found that there were over 27,500 children living with
disabilities who were out of school in the 16 counties, with the highest
number in Mandera (10,082), followed by Turkana (4,573) and Garissa
(4,317). The reasons cited by respondents included lack of special
needs school, teachers or equipment, nomadic and pastoral lifestyles,
and lack of assessment and resource centres. Other surveys have also
found stigma and discrimination to be a significant barrier.

Next, the project aims to reach 250,000 out of school children in 16

counties, working with community leaders, parents and teachers to bring
them back to school.

“Every child has the right to an education and that includes children with
disabilities as much as those without,” UNICEF Kenya Chief of
Education Marilyn Hoar says. “With the right support, children with
disabilities can achieve as much in life as those without. Unfortunately,
following the COVID-19 related school closures last year, we have seen
more children with disabilities drop out of school. So, this programme is
more urgent and important than ever.”
In addition to COVID-19, droughts in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid land
(ASAL) counties, including Turkana, are pushing more families into
poverty and children out of school. “We want to ensure that all schools
are welcoming places for children with disabilities and support poorer
families to withstand droughts and economic shocks, including through
emergency cash transfer programmes,” Marilyn adds.
UNICEFKenya/2021/LameckOrinaArukudi speaks to UNICEF in a classroom at St Bernadette
School for the Deaf

Nomadic lifestyle
Another child returned to school at St Bernadette is 15-year-old Arukudi.
Her parents are nomadic herders and she used to move around with
their animals. “Going to school was impossible,” she says. “My parents
moved to faraway places looking for pasture and water and I had to
follow them. But I was always sad that I was not in school.”

Eventually, a local priest intervened and persuaded Arukudi’s parents to

let her go back to school. “He realized I was clever and brought me to
this school,” she continues. “My parents were undecided at first but after
he spoke to them, they accepted it. I am so happy to be at school. I want
to go to college and train to be a nurse, so that I can help sick people.”

Attitudes towards children with disabilities are slowly changing in

Turkana, and more children like Ezra and Arukudi are getting the
education they deserve. But the twin pressures of the COVID-19
pandemic and droughts driven by climate change are threatening to roll
back progress. This makes initiatives like Operation Come to School
crucial to ensuring that every child in Kenya – with or without disabilities
– has the opportunity for a bright, educated future.
UNICEFKenya/2021/LameckOrinaEzra celebrates after scoring a goal at St Bernadette School for
the Deaf

By Andrew Brown
 Related topics
Education

Children with disabilities

COVID-19

Kenya

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