The Kenyan Child Foundation an Irish registered charity, with its operational base in Dublin, opens School for children living with disabilities in time for the new academic year in the Mukuru slums of Nairobi.

January 11^th 2022 – The Kenyan Child Foundation Ireland.

• Amid the challenges posed by #COVID19, we are proud to announce the opening of the Songa School has welcomed 80 children on its first day of teaching. It has a full capacity of to educate up to 200 students living with disabilities, from a wide variety of backgrounds & abilities.

• The Mukuru slum is the largest in Africa, with over 600,000 inhabitants. Children living with disabilities are especially marginalised in Kenya, with some tribal cultures viewing disability as a curse.

• The Kenyan Child Foundation were committed to the financing and project management of the school

• 54 weeks in the building.

• The Songa School is the second educational establishment delivered by charity since its founding. The first is St. Patrick’s School, Kawese, a primary school for disadvantaged children in the rural Makueni province.

Learn more in our “First Day at Songa” Informational Video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YHNp2gxrNrb-vKSi1ok_3X2HrSYv4rSS/view?usp=drive_web

Following a 54-week planning, fundraising and construction project, the Kenyan Child Foundation is proud to celebrate the opening of the Songa School: a modern and functional, 14,900 square feet educational facility that will serve children living with disabilities in the Mukuru Slum of Nairobi, Kenya.

Just a few kilometres away from the capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, the Mukuru slum stretches along the highly polluted Ngong river and is located beside the municipal city dump. Mukuru is one of the largest slums in Africa. It is located inside the abandoned wasteland of a former industrial area of the city. Families here face huge barriers to formal education, basic amenities such as water are in extremely short supply and there is almost no access to sanitation facilities. Open sewerage runs along the streets.

In addition to these social, health and economic adversities, due to stigma, children and people living with disabilities are sometimes seen as a source of fear and shame in Kenya. Some tribal cultures even view disability as a curse. Faced with such marginalisation, people living with disabilities are five times more likely to be abused in slums in Kenya. Part of the Kenyan Child Foundation aim is to use education as a tool to dispel such beliefs, primarily by offering new educational opportunities to these children and through our advocacy work.