Parents of mentally challenged children in Meru County were taken through an awareness program that will enhance care to their children.
The event, held at Meru School for the mentally challenged in Kaaga was spearheaded by the Site Enterprise, a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with the gender department, and the County special programmes department.
Addressing the media during the exercise, Ms Elizabeth Katuba from the Site Enterprise said the exercise was part of their programme dubbed ‘Boresha maisha ya mama mlemavu’ whose main objective is to empower women faced with disability challenges with skills that can support them financially.
“We know the mentally challenged children are forgotten in many instances because people don’t know how to deal with them and this is the reason we have decided to provide capacity building for the caregivers who will in turn know how to deal with them,” said Ms Katuba.
During the exercise, the caregivers were also taught some business skills which they are supposed to pass to their children and make them financial independent in future.
Meru County Special Programmes Officer Kimathi Ngari said the event was also meant to sensitize the caregivers on the challenges experienced by disabled children and the way they can handle them as well as the places they can take them for professional care.
“The event is also meant to show the caregivers the importance of forming psycho-social groups through which they can teach and encourage each other on ways of bringing up their children,” said Mr Kimathi.
He said the county government was fully supporting such programmes and called on parents with such children to come out and seek help from the available referral pathways.
Imenti North Gender Officer Ms Edith Mukami said the event was a great initiative considering that few people were willing to engage parents to such children in activities that can empower them to live with their mentally-challenged children.
By Dickson Mwiti
