Livelihoods for People Living with Disabilities

Support people living with disabilities in the Diocese of Eldoret, in Kenya, to access small business training and low-interest business loans, enabling a more hopeful future.

Often, when support is given to one member of a family, the whole family benefits. This is what happened in the case of Geoffrey and his daughter, Carren.

Geoffrey and Sally are dairy farmers in Eldoret County in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Carren, aged 19, is living with cerebral palsy and hydrocephaly.

Because of the distance between Carren’s school and her home, and Carren’s need for mobility support, her parents believed that she could not continue with her education. During rainy seasons, her mother would carry Carren on her back. Geoffrey and Sally had accepted that their child would always be dependent on them for everything, including her personal care.
Whilst Carren did have a wheelchair, she still needed help from her parents and siblings to access places like the toilet and bathroom.

Carren felt that she was a burden to the family and had also lost hope in being able to get an education.

Geoffrey applied to receive a small business loan and training as part of AID’s partner, the Diocese of Eldoret’s, Disability Inclusion Project. He was accepted and began training in areas where his business knowledge was not strong – topics such as basic bookkeeping and business management. The project also provided training in child rights, disability rights and inclusivity.

After participating in the training, Geoffrey felt happy that he had learned various ways of managing his business for greater profit. And the dairy farm has started to do very well.

And in terms of the family’s relationship with Carren, Geoffrey and Sally began to realise that because they had been seeing Carren so much in terms of her physical impairments, they had been denying her the freedom and dignity of doing simple household chores and caring for her own personal needs by herself.

Carren’s relationship with the family is improving, and she has developed a more positive attitude towards going to school.

Carren’s family constructed an accessible toilet and shower for her at home. “So, my daughter can now take a shower by herself,” said Geoffrey, smiling. The whole home environment is now more accessible to Carren, and she can now access places on her own that previously required being assisted by her family.

Carren said, “My self-esteem has really improved. I have accepted myself and I believe I am a child, like others. Despite my physical challenges, I can now contribute to the same activities as my siblings.”

Geoffrey also asked the project to support him to enable Carren to continue her schooling. He used some of his loan to buy a motorbike, which he both uses to take Carren to school and also to deliver milk to his customers.

The local community has also benefitted from Geoffrey’s training. The neighbours have learned about the use of animal waste products as manure to fertilise food gardens. And by seeing how the family has been transformed and how Carren is now much more autonomous in her daily life, they have a greater understanding that disability is not inability.

Your support of this project will enable more people like Carren and her family to access support from the Diocese of Eldoret in the form of small business training and low-interest business loans, and to look forward to a much more hopeful future.