Military Wives Association of Kenya (MWAK) on Thursday, 24 March 2022 visited Sahajanand Special Mixed Day & Boarding School located within Mtwapa Educational Institute in Mombasa County.
MWAK members had an opportunity to benchmark possible areas of collaboration as they lobby for the construction of a state-of-the-art special needs education complex to assist KDF children with special needs. This is in an effort to improve the quality of education and other services currently offered to KDF families with differently-abled children.
MWAK members appreciated the need for carefully planned and strategically positioned infrastructure in the school as they also had an opportunity to tour the extracurricular section of the institution where both differently-abled and normal children are trained in taekwondo.
At the Sahajanand vocational training section, the team studied how the children comfortably explore and learn skills in the fields of arts & crafts, tailoring, agriculture and cookery among others. This is usually the exit point for these children in order to be self-sufficient as possible in society. The children are accommodated until they get skills upon which guidance and counseling is offered before they graduate with relevant certificates.
MWAK chairperson Mrs. Tabitha Kibochi acknowledged the vital and sensitive work being done by the institution noting that it calls for personal sacrifice and commitment to deal with such a large number of delicate students.
“We congratulate the management of this institution for their determination and effort in not only accepting the needy and differently-abled students who are often neglected in society, but also providing the best training to them. This indeed ensures the students are holistically cared for and their talents are nurtured,” said Mrs. Kibochi.
She pointed out that the institution has a lot to offer and is a stepping stone towards MWAK’s objective of addressing the welfare of differently-abled children within the KDF fraternity.
Sahajanand Special school Assistant Manager Miss Hildah Horn noted that there is a need for MWAK to educate and mobilize parents that have children with special needs to bring them forward for assistance.
“Some of the support we are offering is assessment of the disability, sponsorship of their education, issuance of assistive devices as well as medical and therapeutic services,” said Miss Horn adding that Sahajanand was ready to assist.
Sahajanand Special School has over 1,000 special needs students drawn from various counties across Kenya to which the Teachers Service Commission has provided teachers, trained in handling children with special needs.
Mtwapa Educational Institute is a government school, also home to the K.P. Junior School and K.P. Senior School, which is also sponsored by private entities.
