OCTC Kandisi, Fundraising for a centre to cater for children living with mental disabilities

Please join us to help children and youth leaving with mental disability. The smile you may create on the face of a disadvantaged kid is so wonderful, because it outshines the challenges the kid have.

According to available statistics, 3.6 million Kenyans are living with developmental disabilities. There is a correlation between occurrence of developmental disabilities with hunger, malnutrition and difficulty accessing the basic services necessary for good health such as clean water, etc. These also are the principal causes of mental impairment. Less than 1% have access to health care and rehabilitation services, with 99 % having to struggle to survive without any attention. It is also estimated that only 23,000 students (between the ages of 10 to 30) have access to education, in the 1,200 schools and special facilities for persons with developmental disabilities in the country. There are only 48 small residential homes and private schools providing care to only  438 persons.

In the course of their pastoral work within communities, the Catholic church through the religious congregation of Sons of Divine Providence identified this need in Kaburugi Parish in Kandara, Thika where they established a centre to cater for mentally disabled children. The pilot project has been very successful and has made a major impact in the community. A similar assessment has been made in the Kandisi Parish in Ongata Rongai Division, Ngong District (about 30 km to the south of Nairobi), where the Congregation has a presence. On 3rd December 2012, an invitation was sent to all families in this location and its surrounding areas who had family members with developmental disability so that the cases could be registered. Over 100 families turned up, majority coming from surrounding villages and slums.

A similar project to the one in Thika was then initiated by the Sons of Divine providence at Kandisi Parish with the follow objectives: 

• Provide physiotherapy to help rehabilitate the children where possible.

• Provide an Educational center to enable them access ordinary education for literacy and future opportunities.

• Training to enable the future adults to reach their potential physically, socially and emotionally

• Make the beneficiaries productive members of society in a few years.

• Help them today to enable them help others in the future

This is therefore an invitation to you to attend our fundraiser function on Saturday 26th October, 2013 to be held at Kandisi Church grounds in Ongata Rongai. Attached is a map to guide you to the venue.

Yours faithfully,

On behalf of the implementation committee

Fr. Alejandro Ruiz

Director – Orione Community training Center

Email :  Alejandroruiz.y@gmail.com

Committee Members

1.       Fr. Alejandro Ruiz – Chairman

2.       Peter Njoroge Kinyanjui – Nairobi City County

3.       Fr. Peter Wambulwa – Kandisi Catholic Parish

4.       Philip Talamson – Bio Quest Kenya Ltd

5.       James Ng’ang’a – Uchumi Supermarkets Ltd.

6.       Simon Kaloki – Kenya Revenue Authority

Glenn Pearce Oroz – The World Bank