NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 1 – Parents and teachers at the Nile Road Special School can now afford a smile after the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Foundation on Friday donated wheel chairs, sewing machines and dry food stuffs worth Sh400,000 to the school.
Benedetta Muthoki a parent said children with special needs were often ostracised and shunned by the society making it difficult to bring them up.
She wants the government and other corporate societies to consider the needs of the physically and mentally handicapped children.
“We have a lot of problems especially when it comes to transport. For instance my child is seven years old but he cannot walk, so I have to carry him in a shuka on my back. When we board a matatu, people even refuse to sit next to you,” she said.
The Head Teacher Lucy Omweno also reiterated calls by the parents saying the conditions in the class rooms were not ideal for the needy children.
“We have infrastructure but it is in bad shape. Our roofs are leaking, the floors are messed up and we have loosely hanging electricity wires. So we just want to appeal to any well wishers to come to our aid,” she said adding that most parents at the school were poor.
KCB Group Chief Executive Officer Martin Oduor Otieno also pledged an additional Sh200,000 to the pupils.
“This school represents to us over 200 schools across the region which will receive support from KCB teams over the next one week. The teams will support the schools in terms of infrastructure improvement and provision of learning materials,” he said.
He added that the bank had set aside Sh17 million to be shared among its units and branches in line with the specific needs of the beneficiary schools.
Mr Otieno also said that the KCB Group wanted to ensure that the youth got valuable education that would enable them play their rightful role in the socio-economic development of the country.
“As you may be aware, the KCB Foundation is implementing a computer programme in various schools across Kenya in conjunction with the Computer for Schools in Kenya. The programme aims at equipping one school in every province with essential ICT skills,” he said.
He further said that the bank was looking into ways of setting up one school in each county with 20 networked computers at an estimated cost of Sh20 million.
“This will further augment the investment we are making to support education across the markets and contribute to the improvement in the standard of education in our schools,” he said.
KCB Foundation has also set aside Sh100 million for this year to be shared in the areas of environment, enterprise, development, health and humanitarian intervention.
“In each of these areas we have agreed flagship initiatives that we shall drive in order to make a positive impact in our communities,” Mr Otieno added.
