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Disability Inclusion partnership with National Funds for the Disabled of Kenya (NFDK)
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Sharing Life
Sharing Life
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Build Relations
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Raising Funds to
support Disability
Inclusion
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Experience the Love !
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web 2This weekend, as I was cooling my aching body after a bumpy 30km practice bicycle ride I was wondering, WHAT EXACTLY AM I RIDING FOR?  What happens once we achieve the targets of the campaign?

 Since May 2021, I, some members of L’Arche Kenya and our friends have been engaged in a campaign to raise funds and create awareness on issues pertaining to disabilities.  The campaign will culminate in mid-September 2021. 

We target to raise Kes.4,000,000/-.  The funds will be used in

  • Medication for use by people living with disabilities.
  • Accessibility and mobility by introducing ramps to vehicles for easier access by people on wheelchair and disability inclusive amenities in washrooms.
  • Equipping a therapy fitness centre for use by both adults and children with disabilities.

This weekend, as I was cooling my aching body after a bumpy 30km practice bicycle ride I was wondering, WHAT EXACTLY AM I RIDING FOR?  What happens once we achieve the targets of the campaign?

It dawned on me that the greater goal of the campaign is inclusion and dignity.  Very important keywords in disability circles.  It hit me how many times in the course of my job I have taken away someone’s dignity as I supported them to overcome challenges (exclusion) posed by disability.  How many times I have watched people with disabilities fail to participate in certain activities because a minor adjustment necessary to improve access has been overlooked.

I have …

  • Lifted people physically to help them board or disembark from vehicles in a manner that put me within their personal space. Maybe they didn’t like it but what choice did they have?
  • Discussed with potential supporters, intimate details about medical needs of other people. All the while I never mentioned mine and found more private ways to sort them out. Maybe the person wished they had the means to sort theirs without everyone in the neighbourhood or church hearing about it. 
  • Watched helplessly several times how people with disabilities were unable to access fitness centres and gyms because they had no confidence to use the equipment. Sometimes the people in charge of the equipment (and rightly so) were not sure that the persons with disability could use the equipment safely.
  • Been alled upon numerous times to support people use non inclusive facilities like toilets and showers. The only thing that stood between their privacy and dignity was a bar of stainless steel properly placed to support the person. The price paid by those persons is having their private spaces encroached into in the name of support.

Many other things like … didn’t go right because I didn’t act.

These thoughts have made me feel more energized to continue the pedalling.  I invite you, my friends, to the privilege of doing our small part in correcting this anomaly.  I want to make it a beginning and hopefully the small step will create a spiral of other actions towards making our environment more supportive for the  dignity and inclusion of everyone.  Maybe in the future I will have far less to feel guilty about.

You can join by sending a contribution to 

  • Mpesa Paybill 64 64 57 account stretching 2021.
  • Sharing widely in your networks about the campaign and inviting your friends to support the campaign as above.

Peter’s Diary is a collection of articles describing L’Arche Kenya from the eyes of an assistant. All the articles are real and factual though they relate to different members of the community.

 

Programmes

  • Effatha and Betania Home

    effatha home

    At the centre of L'Arche Kenya are the two homes, Effatha and Betania, where people with intellectual disabilities live and work together with their assistants. The core members find there a safe and supportive environment that allows them to pursue their own interests and grow. The homes also serve as a showpiece to the communities an how to give people with disabilities a normal and dignified life.

  • Occupational Therapy Workshops

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    L’Arche Kenya also implements an occupational therapy programme that provides adults with intellectual disabilities with a meaningful engagement while nurturing their gifts. Currently, the organization supports 33 adults in various workshops. candle-making workshop, craft workshop, sensory workshop, kitchen and catering workshop, cleaning workshop and carpentry workshop. These workshops give persons with intellectual disabilities with real-life work experience and prepare them for integration into employment.

  • Disability Outreach Programme

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    The Disability Outreach Programme links the organization to the local community by providing spaces for PWIDs to make known their gifts and offering services to children, youth and adults with various disabilities. Some of the activities include:

    • Advocacy forums at the grassroots level to advocate for the inclusion of persons with disabilities
    • Community engagement and mobilization to address the issues  that persons with disabilities encounter
  • Social Enterprise

    bakery

    L’Arche Kenya runs a social enterprise that aims at providing the organization with some level of financial sustainability as well as showcasing the gifts of our core-members through internal work placement. The projects include the Marleen gift shop, a bakery, the Maranatha welcome and rescue unit, a leather workshop,a  poultry project, and a vegetable farm.

  • Marleen Crafts

     

     

    marlene crafts

    At Marleen Crafts, we sell the produce of your social enterprise.

    Come and visit us!

  • Come and See

     

     

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    Do you want to experience L'Arche Kenya?

    Stay with us for a time!

     

     

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