Challenges Encountered
Discrimination and stigmatization
Kisii County is a region that is deeply rooted in witchcraft and as result, residents tend to blame any form of disability to witchcraft. This means that children with special needs are discriminated against and families are stigmatized. Many families have disintegrated as affected fathers tend to run away while blaming women for bringing bad omens in their families. Women are therefore left to take care of their special children on their own.
Acceptance and lack of hope
In most cases, children with special needs find it difficult to operate alone. This creates a need for continuous care and support. As a result, most parents tend to lose hope with their children with special needs and often view them as burdens and losers who cannot amount to anything resulting to negligence. Convincing such parents to bring children to the center has been the biggest challenge as they see no future for the kids and see no reason why they ought to give them an opportunity
Financial Constraints
It is without a doubt that raising a special needs child is more than 10 times expensive as compared to those that are considered ‘normal’. That is linked to the fact that they require special diets whose alternatives are not freely available and very pricey, they require therapeutic services on a daily basis for them to be able to cope with their environment, they require speech pathologist who are not ready available in the region and the county as a whole, special needs teachers to handle them are also expensive to hire and maintain. As a result, parents struggle to maintain their children at the center and 5 learners have already dropped out due to financial constraints and pandemic aftermath. That also means that it becomes very difficult for us to cater for the kids with special needs because we rely on fees and donations to keep the center running.
Lack of support from both local and national government
Lack of policy for neurological disabilities is a very challenge to our operation. Lack of policy means that we have not been able to get the required regulatory and financial support from the County and the National Government.
Accessibility to the Center
Many kids live far apart, and they can’t access the center since we don’t have a boarding facility which limits many deserving kids a chance hence the need of a transportation means.