Meeting with the Director
August 26, 2015
"If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never spent the night with a mosquito." - African proverb
On this day I was finally able to meet with the director of the centre. Her schedule is often filled with back to back meetings as she takes on the role of clinical director and manager. We spoke for quite some time while sipping on Kenyan masala tea pausing intermittently to listen to the laughs and cries of children, and for her to answer questions of the staff as they poked their heads in the room.
We spoke about her short and long-term goals, her expectations, her hesitations, her connections, her resources, and her 3-5 year plan for wanting to expand services. Every question was answered with compassion and hope. She explained that they see children until the age of 16, but as she said "for those over 16, we have no place to send them, we don't want to leave them hanging - we don't want to turn anyone away... So providing transition supports is something that we absolutely have to do."
We then spoke about what that would look like and identified that the community would benefit from Kaizora developing a separate branch that could focus solely on vocational services and emphasize the importance of integration and inclusion. However, this could not be done without additional funding and support. Kaizora has limited staff and resources and has only worked with one child over the age of 16. The current staff is not trained to provide vocational supports, they have no connections with local employers, vocational rehabilitation services or university centers, and they have little knowledge of the benefits of the Persons with Disabilities Act in Kenya (KDA).
The research I had done on the KDA prior to my visit seemed to mirror the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) so I was optimistic about the supports that Kenyans with Disabilities could receive and the resources that Kaizora could access.
The Policy
The Persons with Disabilities Act in Kenya was enacted on 31st of December 2003, overseen by the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD). Among its many responsibilities the council is mandated to implement projects that promote sheltered employment, and regular or self-employment opportunities for persons with disabilities (PWD). The council also offers capacity expansion grants to local agencies (an important potential funding source for Kaizora). The Act, in brevity, prohibits discrimination in education, employment setting, and social contexts. It mandates that local and states agencies make appropriate accommodations and offers incentives to employers. The Act also emphasizes person-centered planning and having the individual with the disabilities play an active role in the decision making process.
As I explained the policy and benefits of joining the national council, the director's demeanor changed: "Over here, in this country, the government incentives and this Act are not going to speak to the employers or the community. I can tell you that now - It's a straight up thing... it is difficult to trust that the government will honor the policy." And as far as accessing supports, she said "This can be difficult. It is not just straight up hill, it is straight up and really rocky and slippery, and to get anything done you need to know people that know people and even then you need to pay out those people for helping you before you can receive any funding."
I had high hopes for the Act, but after hearing what the director had to say, I realized that further research was necessary on its actual implementation. I found several gaps with the implementation of the Act:
Policy Gap:
- Youth with disabilities get overlooked
- Lack of accountability and enforcement, and monitoring progress (the NCPWD only recently, after 10 years, implemented a Monitoring and Reporting survey)
- Community has the assumption that there is a high cost associated with the Act
- Gives discretionary powers rather than mandatory
- Lack of collaboration between school, provider centers, and government agencies
- The definition of "disability" is very limited
Education Gap:
- Special education services are more prevalent in urban settings (78% in Nairobi, 22% spread out among 7 other provinces)
- Lack of transition support from school to post-secondary education
Employment Gap:
- Lack of vocational and technical training institutes, skills training in school
- Lack of transition support from school to work
- Approx. 30% of youth with disabilities are unemployed, 31 % work for family
- Limited employment choices: tailoring, leatherworking, jewelry-making, and dress-making
Gender Gap:
- Girls with disabilities are enrolled in poorly-resourced school settings at a higher rate than boys with disabilities
- High levels of rape among girls with disabilities (72% of girls ages 15-19 experience persuasive or violent sexual encounters as their first sexual experience)
Social Awareness Gap:
- PWD lack awareness of their own rights and supports and laws that protect them
- Great stigma amongst parents of PWD (results in hiding instead of taking them to school, and some even resign from their jobs)
- Lack of proper awareness among the general public, employers, and businesses on the provisions of the Act
As the director of Kaizora explained, in many under-resourced countries all laws are fluid and subject to misinterpretation or poor implementation. When I first probed her knowledge of laws protecting individuals with disabilities in Kenya, she stated, "Yes, we have one, but in Kenya we struggle to enforce even basic laws. It's unlikely that a law like this would be followed. Most people don't even know it exists." Nonetheless, I was struck with disappointment with the Act's lack of enforcement and accountability. I find it disheartening that the intension is there, but it fails to be supported... This made me want to stay in Kenya to advocate for the importance of such a law.