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August 3, 2024“The training has been a game changer for us. We got a mentor who came here and helped us see the gaps in the pre-existing strategic plan. We are working on a new one. Through the MS course, we learnt how to advocate instead of demonstration and writing proper proposals,” he offers. Documented Dec 2022
Along Karanja Road in Kibera slums, the street is bustling with vendors selling goods or food as well as people going about their daily business. It is here that the Gifted Community Centre operates. A small office, yet a hub of activity and community within the local area.
Gifted Community Center, abbreviated as GCC has an interesting history. Hellen Mueni, the finance officer shares when it was started, the two directors were still in secondary school. “That was in 2008 but it was officially registered in 2018. So far, we have served more than 300 persons with disabilities,” she offers.
Having been born and brought up in Kibera, the founders of GCC, both of whom are persons with disabilities, observed that persons with disabilities were among the most vulnerable and marginalised groups, facing significant challenges in accessing essential services and opportunities.
“We mentor, educate, inform, empower and advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities. As the organisation is a leadership hub for young people who are social media savvy, our advocacy is very big on social media,” shares Hellen.
Gifted Community Center, abbreviated as GCC has an interesting history. Hellen Mueni, the finance officer shares when it was started, the two directors were still in secondary school. “That was in 2008 but it was officially registered in 2018. So far, we have served more than 300 persons with disabilities,” she offers.
Having been born and brought up in Kibera, the founders of GCC, both of whom are persons with disabilities, observed that persons with disabilities were among the most vulnerable and marginalised groups, facing significant challenges in accessing essential services and opportunities.
“We mentor, educate, inform, empower and advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities. As the organisation is a leadership hub for young people who are social media savvy, our advocacy is very big on social media,” shares Hellen.
GCC works in all 13 villages of Kibera slums and across the 47 counties by having ambassadors in different learning institutions.
Today, the organisation has programs in health, community and public education, sustainable livelihoods, research, outreach, and advocacy and sustainable organisation growth.
By the end of 2021, GCC had reached out to approximately 1000 persons with disabilities (including 400 women, 500 youth and 100 children with disabilities, and 100 caregivers/community members) with comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), HIV prevention, COVID-19 prevention, Gender-based violence (GBV) and employability related services/ skills.
“We started by doing baseline surveys which involved knocking on doors to register persons with disabilities. It is through such interventions that Gladwel Wambui represents persons with disabilities at the sub-county’s CDF committee.
“I was a very shy person before I met GCC because I felt that I wasn’t a normal person. Although my family truly loved and doted on me, some quarters were very unkind to me. I got pregnant at 19 and when I went to the neonatal clinic, I remember the doctor laughing at me because of my deformed hand. Other people would call me all sorts of names because of my disability,” she shares.
GCC, Wambui reveals, helped her understand her rights to seek education, medical services, and family planning. She mentors young girls and works as a community health worker.
“In 2022, we made part of the Nairobi technical working group as the only organisation working with persons with disabilities. We are also part of a consortium of organisations that advocate for persons with disabilities,” offers Dennis Kaburu, a project coordinator at the organisation.
Over the years, GCC has been involved in various research such as the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on persons with disabilities, food security and nutrition, uptake on Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) on invisible disabilities, and SRHR on adolescents with disabilities.
“Every project that we implement is guided by research. That is why recently, we went on a campaign for Nairobi County to provide assistive devices for persons with disabilities. We are a team of eight; four core team members and four volunteers.
Dennis explains that to promote disability inclusion at all levels and be able to draft policies, they felt the need to apply for the mobilising support (MS) training by Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) through Change the Game Academy.
“The training has been a game changer for us. We got a mentor who came here and helped us see the gaps in the pre-existing strategic plan. We are working on a new one. Through the MS course, we learnt how to advocate instead of demonstration and writing proper proposals,” he offers.
The organisation has diverged into a constellation of single-issue groups that raise awareness of specific disabilities and converged into cross-disability coalitions that increasingly include intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation.
“MS taught us the importance of collaborations with like-minded organisations in the space of advocacy. Some of our advocacies include community mobilization during the election period and encouraging the local administration and aspirants to ensure peace and inclusion during the campaign, press release with YSO on the exclusion of youth and PWDs in the PS nomination list (court case lodged by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK)), development of key messages with LVCT on access to SRHR and advocacy to access GBV services.
Nelly Luchesi, a small-scale business owner in Kibera is all smiles when sharing how she has been supported by GCC.
“I have a 23-year-old daughter who is mentally ill. It started while she was in grade eight, but I didn’t take notice. When she started showing intense shifts in moods while in secondary school, I thought that she had been bewitched. I went to religious leaders of all sorts and sold my assets in search of a cure. GCC encouraged me to seek medical intervention,” offers the mother of five.
Presently, GCC is working on a policy that will see sign language adopted in medical schools.
“When a deaf person goes to the hospital, the right to confidentiality is lost because many medical practitioners don’t understand sign language. Once adopted, it will ensure that deaf people can communicate with the medical practitioners,” shares Hellen.
