Taking Action to Lift the Lives of People Living with Disability

Kennedy Siocha has been working for the Ministry of Agriculture for more than twenty years. Without a vision, Kennedy has always known that he is one of the few people with disabilities lucky to have a gainful employment. To him, this has also meant a responsibility.

Working in Machakos town located 40 kilometres from Kenya’s capital Nairobi, he always knew that the town was populated with many People Living with Disabilities (PWDs). Unlike him, they were mainly consigned to life of perpetual dependency characterized by begging. So he decided to take action and formed a Community Based Organisation – Blind and Low Vision Network Kenya (BLINK). His starting point was where he worked.

“I proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture that we incorporate PWDs, by bringing them on board. We were given an office and my fellow PWDs started coming.”

For the past two years, BLINK has been working with KCDF whose work has centred on empowerment, disability rights and access to information in terms of service providers for PWDs.  BLINK has also initiated income generating projects like cake baking, dairy goat rearing, and rabbit rearing selling the produce to fellow community members.

Working with PWDs is a challenging endeavour, especially because most of these members have never been in formal settings. They are largely discriminated within their communities. As part of bringing them to the mainstream, BLINK members have benefitted from capacity building activities through the KCDF grant.

“We were facilitated by KCDF to have a training with the Ministry of Agriculture to change the mind-set that PWDs are just beggars. We have had training on different aspects of agriculture and farming. That is how we started partnering with Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry of Agriculture is about livelihoods. When you don’t do agriculture, you cannot achieve much,” says Kennedy.

BLINK has found a productive working environment with the Ministry of Agriculture. These trainings are meant to enable PWDs engage in meaningful production and value addition of their work. So far, members have been training on baking confectionaries, and how to rear goats.

“The Ministry of agriculture has brought their technical expertise to impart knowledge on BLINK members. They also take care of our animals through provision of veterinary services.s”

The KCDF grant has been important for BLINK’s disability mainstreaming work, which is significant in terms of inclusion. BLINK members note that PWDs have been discriminated for a long time, excluded from the everyday activities. Part of the challenge PWDs is lack of information. BLINK activities have extended to take advantage of government efforts.  In Machakos County, BLINK members are sitting in government committees where they have a member each at Uwezo Fund[1] and the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

Originally BLINK started as a group catering for the visually challenged. Today, BLINK incorporates all people with disability due to the high demand. The organization has organized members into different groups. In Machakos there are thirteen (13) organized groups. These include the physically challenged, visually challenged, caregivers of mentally handicapped children and the hearing impaired.

Through the grant , BLINK is able to point to a number of achievements.

In Machakos County, there is increased acceptance for PWDs in the community. Fewer PWDs are living in exclusion. They have gained confidence to come out and engage in different activities. Secondly, PWDs have something to bring on the table. For a long time, PWDs sat in the margins and were not involved in governance, leadership or decision-making.

Through BLINK activities, members have income of their own and as a result, the begging and dependency has considerably reduced.  BLINK has also advocated for various measures with the Machakos County government. PWDs are exempted from paying licencing fee to engage in business without barriers. This has allowed PWDS to engage in small business. Finally, PWDs have been able to speak in a unified way and bring out a strong voice that allows advocating for various issues around rights and access to services. This has helped to alleviate exclusion.

Part of the challenge that BLINK is facing is increased demand beyond their area of operations. The group is receiving different referrals as many PWDs are sent to the group.  Where they can, they are conducting training and other capacity building activities to ensure that the PWDs groups are able to implement their own activities in different parts of Machakos County and beyond. This increased demand shows the organization’s work is being felt and also the continued need to work with PWDs. The group is however taking this in a stride and with more resources; BLINK believes they can achieve more