Kenya
Poverty and stigma mean that deaf children are often left out of their families and communities. Our research showed that many families in Kenya think that a deaf child has “no profit” and is not worth investing in. With our partners, we are working to change this.
The majority of the estimated 230,000 Kenyan deaf children have hearing parents and live below the poverty line, as few as 3,600 are in schools for the deaf. Many of these children are denied their rights to free primary education, protection from abuse and neglect and inclusion in family and community.
Deaf Child Worldwide has been working with Kenya Society for Deaf Children and the National Children in Need Network to improve the lives of deaf children and their families. We have:
- supported over 120 families in Nairobi slums and 80 parents in rural Kitui district to learn Kenyan Sign Language and develop more positive attitudes towards their deaf children
- supported the establishment of seven self help groups for families of deaf children
- delivered life skills training to 80 young deaf people living in residential schools covering children’s rights, sexual health and protection, relationships, identity and self esteem
- Together with deaf young people, produced a Deaf Children's Manifesto and facilitated these young people to present the manifesto to the Vice President, the Hon Moody Awori.
Rights for deaf children and their families in Kenya
In 2008, Deaf Child Worldwide received funding from the UK Department for International Development to carry out a 5-year project working in 6 districts of Kenya. This project will work to establish groups of families with deaf children. It will give them access to information about deafness and Kenyan Sign Langauge skills giving them a chance to communicate with their children for the first time. We will also work to support these family groups to develop local level advocacy projects raising awareness of the rights of deaf children in their communities and ensuring governments deliver adequate services. Towards the end of the project, the families will come together to develop a national level manifesto for change.
Parents together
Deaf Child Worldwide supported the Kenya Society for Deaf Children to work with parents in Korogocho, one of the poorest slums in Nairobi. They wrote about the challenges and successes of this project.
Read their account of working with families in Korogocho
