Derby educator reports from Kenya

By Lois Knapton
Director, Special Education
Derby Public Schools

Lois Knapton

   Wow, imagine, a little over one week ago, I was driving to the airport, with feelings of excitement, doubt, fear, and utter astonishment that it was actually happening.
Life is funny, I start with enough doubt and wonderment to push me forward, then I get rejuvenated  with enough courage to conquer the world...and up and down the roller coaster I go.

In those times of deepest doubt, when tears start to swell up in my eyes, and I wonder what in the world can I do for these people, I breathe deeply and quiet my mind.
The answer is always the same: HOPE.

    

      This mother's story (pictured at right) is incredibly sad. I sat with her in her slum shack while she told me her story.
     Her husband left her again, after she got pregnant, and he married another; she earns money by walking two kilometers, to carry water (a five-gallon container) back to the neighbors, who pay her five shillings, the equivalent of .06 cents, for each trip she makes.
She can make up to 20 shillings per day, .24 cents.  She and her children have gone as many as three days without food or water. When we visit, we give counsel, advice, and prayer. And then we go to the next slum shack.


        

 

  One of the other children, pictured below,  fell off her mother's back while her mother was running away from her attackers during the political unrest a few years ago here in Kenya.
   Susie has never been the same. She has trouble walking, she does not speak, and her memory is very poor.
   She cannot attend school because she cannot use the bathroom on her own.

  

Here she is with social worker Isabella, a Godsend for the Mathare Valley.

      But, in one week's time I have developed procedures for referral of students with learning difficulties, spoken to the educational leaders, and met with a large group of parents in one of the Center schools, to discuss why I am here.
    During that meeting, a parent stood up, speaking in Swahili and being translated for me. He said his daughter has special needs and he wanted to know who he should talk to.
     The school staff answered his question.
       This is a HUGE step in this culture, as many parents are shunned for having children with disabilities. This time my tears were tears of HOPE.
     This week we are off to do assessments of various students in some of the 14 centers now up and running.

Lois Knapton is spending three months working with educators and parents in Nairobi, Kenya. She will be filing weekly reports from there.