Church extends love to people living with disability

Residents of Kiambu were Sunday urged to register physically challenged people with St James Cathedral for purposes of a seven day visitation awareness programme.
The church provost, the Very Rev. Geoffrey Mungai, told the congregants during the main service to register their physically challenged children, relatives or neighbours with the church to enable proper preparation on how the beneficiaries would be engaged.
“We will visit all the people who will register with us and for the next seven days, engage and socialize with them,” he said.
According to the provost, the activity would help embrace the minority group in the society and even involve them in the church’s activities such as attending service of the deaf that is held every Sunday in the church.
The canon who is also the cathedral archdeacon in Mt Kenya South diocese said that the programme would aid in the recognition of people living with disabilities which would create a sense of belonging and hence they would be able to indulge more in their day to day activities so as to make them self-reliant.
A congregant of St James Cathedral Dorcas Wambui hailed the programme saying it would help recognize the minority group and also address the stigmatization.
“The church is leading by example by visiting the physically challenged in their homes hoping that the locals will emulate its ways and treat them as equals,” Wambui said.
She further said that such programmes would encourage such minorities to be involved in societal activities therefore feeling appreciated.
However, Wambui who is a mother of a two year old daughter, suggested that the church should have an inclusive service which incorporates all people as it would be a better way of empowering and creating awareness about physically challenged persons.
“The deaf should not only have a separate service but there should also be a forum where they attend services with other people,” she said. Currently, the church holds a service for the deaf prior to other services.
According to Wambui, such forums would enable her daughter and generally the entire society to appreciate the physically impaired thus ending the stigmatization that they have lived with.
The disability week will commence from September 16 – 22 and aims at empowering the disabled so that they could be able to carry on with their daily activities despite the discrimination and seclusion from the society.
By Harry Kamanda