Presented at ISEC 2000

Oriang Cheshire Services In Kenya

Alice Bradley

Oriang Cheshire Services is one of the 23 services that fall under the Eastern and Northern Africa Region of Leonard Cheshire International. The organisation profile has already been presented. An outline of the interaction of individuals and addressing their needs has also been given. This presentation therefore continues the trend of thoughts of how Cheshire interacts with new communities in the issues of Inclusive Education. It discusses the initial steps taken to understand existing activities in projects in a community set-up and proceeds to assist the community come up with their priorities. The community then takes the leading role in planning and implementing the project. In this way the communities are able to identify themselves with the projects and literally own them.

1 Oriang service profile

Oriang Cheshire services was an outcome of the many projects which mushroomed in Kenya after the massive awareness which was created by both the National and International years of Disabled 1980 and 1981 respectively. The services was a hostel for physically disabled children who would not access education in their neighbouring schools because of distances and poor physical structure of the schools.

Leonard Cheshire International came into contact with Oriang community in 1998. Oriang Cheshire services was then known as Oriang Small Home for the Physically handicapped. Hosting fifteen children from five neighbouring districts (a ratio of 3 children from each district) very insignificant impact both in creating awareness in the communities and empowering disabled people.

A quick assessment of the project by LCI at their entry point revealed:

• Though the fifteen children were drawn away from their homes in order to get closer to schools which would cater for their needs, all what they got was a casual inclusion in Oriang primary school. The school lacked the basic requirements for disabled children.
• There was a gap of knowledge and skills on disability among the teachers, peers and community at large.therefore though the children were among other children they still felt excluded in socially and physically.
• Support for the disabled children was not available. This was extremely difficult for them because classrooms were crowded and resources poor. this led to an increase in the dropout rate of this category of children (80% of disabled children enrolled in schools dropped out with in the second and third year)
• Stigmatisation effect on children who were institutionalised even though no entirely, they were cut from their families and considered alien to the host community and would require adjusting when they go to their home communities.
• Community involvement also lacked. Though community had some aspects of ignorance on modern trends of disability and development, they did accommodate them.
• Oriang Cheshire services was under utilised. The hostel has a potential of supporting many a people in the immediate community, influence change of attitude and have impact for disabled people.
• There were no policies governing the practice. What was being practised depended on good will to a larger extent.

2. Community involvement

Oriang Cheshire services forged a partnership with Leonard Cheshire International in 1998 January. After an assessment of the project, discussions were done with the management on the way forward. Involvement of the community in order to tease out more realistic needs was seen necessary. An approach to initiate the process was necessary so that the community would not feel highjack. This process entailed:

• Identifying opinion clusters in the community and how best the category would be influenced. This step was necessary so as to make sure that no party was left out. Groups identified for inclusion in the clusters included parents of disabled children, disabled persons, school communities, church communities and community health workers

The government ministries and other organisations in the area were invited as ex-officials to the forums, and were focused for collaboration and networking.

• After the groups got familiar with Oriang project, they were asked to outline the project's weaknesses. And point out how they would want to see it operate. The community said that they would want to see Oriang addressing issues of disabilities in the immediate community other than spreading too thinly in the five districts. However they could not visualise how that would take place.
• This is where LCI had a chance of adding value to the community prioritising and planning. After establishing a management committee the process of developing a strategy document then commenced.
• The committee members were trained on leadership and management skills after which they took lead of collecting data for the strategy document.
• The pattern of planning took the conventional way of identifying issues, prioritising, planning then implementing. Issues that cropped up during the prioritising exercise included; Education, Rehabilitation, Employment, and Establishing data on people with disabilities.
• LCI facilitated the development of strategy document whose objectives are

- To double the enrolment, participation and retention of disabled children in five schools of Oriang community from (20% to 40%) in five years time.
- Increase the knowledge skills and practice for disabled persons, teachers, parents, volunteers and peers for the five schools in the next five years.
- To tap community resources for education, skills development and employment within Oriang community for five years.
- To develop a resource centre to support the five schools in Oriang Cheshire services.

3 Changing roles of Special Education

Missionaries in the 1940s (Abila 1988 UNESCO) initiated special education programs in Kenya however the growth of the idea was hampered by

• Most Special Schools were donor driven; hence to initiate other programmes or expand the existing ones is a decision beyond the communities. Hence replicating Special Schools was not only difficult but they were unsustainable. (A reality which is hitting Kenya in many spheres such as roads, hospitals electricity industries which were developed with little considerations of sustainability).
• Lack of policies to govern institutions
• Graduates of the institutions had problems adjusting to their communities after the long stay in institutions.
• Removal of children with disabilities from communities had a negative effect on the community. Out of sight out of mind.
• Equally since the Special schools were few, the effect of empowering people with disabilities was quite minimal.

Oriang Cheshire services and others have started advocating for an alternative approach to Special Education. The alternative to the above mentioned model is removing barriers that exclude disabled people from our midst. Oriang has made initiatives of piloting a project, which will encourage the use of community resources. The intention is facilitating a model prepared with support requirement for communities to tap this could include

- Personnel in Braille, sign language, and therapy as provision for any required specialisation.
- Large print text and other reference materials
- Individualised needs of furniture or equipment
- technology of production of learning aids and walking aids
- Audio visual aids
- leisure and sports equipment

4 Strategies

- Community organisation will be achieved through mobilisation and training of community to support the programme from the very beginning. This will also raise the awareness of disabilities in the community the leadership of the projects will be in the hands of the community with a high representation of Disabled person and parents.
- Networking and collaboration with be encouraged in order to give the project a good opportunity to influence policies and practise in the area.
- Partnership with government will be crucial as the prime responsibility of provision of services is primarily theirs. So ones the pilot succeeds, the government should enhance it further or expand on it.

In conclusion, Oriang Cheshire services will encourage the community to overcome their traditional beliefs, hence recognise the needs of those with disabilities in there midst. The service will also enhance the skills of teachers, parents and volunteers to a level of being resource persons in the community. The project will not stop at the literacy level but will go further and enhance skills, which would assist graduates to be employed.

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