The proposed project Disability Social Mobilisation for Civic and advocacy training is a one year project being implemented in Embu County in Kenya. The project increases visibility of persons with disability (PWD) and promotes their inclusion in governance through civic education. The project is implemented by three organisations for working for the hearing impaired in Kenya namely: a) Deaf Empowerment society of Kenya (DESK) b) Federation of Deaf Women Empowerment Network (FEDWEN-KENYA) c) Deaf Outreach programme (DEAFOP)

1. Mobilisation of at least 1000 persons with disability across Embu county into focus groups and map out disability leadership groups across the county.
2. Facilitation of registration of mobilised persons into Disability ward groups.
3. Training of identified PWD leaders from each ward group.
4. Baseline survey study to establish the knowledge, aptitude, and practice on the participation of PWDs in county government processes.
5. Civic education training to 1500 PWD and their family members.

Grassroots networks’ response to marginalisation 

Wambeti* is a physically challenged woman living in Embu. She visits Embu level 4 hospital every month for her clinic appointments and whenever her children fell ill, it was upon her to ensure they go for check-up and treatment. One big challenge she faced was the use of public service transport as the drivers and conductors avoided or refused to pick her and at times they refused to drop her at the hospital gate. This would mean the vehicle operators would be arrested for using the wrong pick up and drop off points. Thus she had to be dropped at the main bus stop and use extra transport back to the hospital.  

This is a peek into the daily challenge faced by persons with disability in Embu town as there are many Wambetis. As a result of this stigma and exclusion, the Disability Social Mobilisation for Civic and Advocacy Training project was set up to increase their visibility and promote inclusion in governance through civic education. 

The project intended to mobilize at least 1000 PWD across Embu into focus groups to map out disability leadership groups, facilitate registration of mobilized persons into disability ward groups, train identified PWD leaders from each ward group, conduct baseline KAP survey on PWD participation in county government process and conduct civic education to 1500 PWD with their families 

As a result, the project was able to reach PWD during mobilisation (195 deaf, 20 parents of intellectually disabled children, 73 visually impaired, 40 intellectually impaired and 522 physically disabled), trained 25 PWD group leaders across the 20 wards, and conducted monitoring visits and follow-ups to 4 groups with 50 members. 

Through these activities, DEAFOP through their empowerment project contributed towards promoting grassroots organisations of deaf persons by creating 20   disability   caucus   groups   and   4   formally   registered   constituency organisations in the county. Additionally, there has been a steady growth of ward groups at engagement with five wards groups  currently  engaging  with the   county   government   on   agricultural and poultry   projects. The groups include Ruguru-Ngandori, Kianjokoma, Kirimari, Siakago, and Kithimu disability groups. The team has also been able to engage with askaris (guards), drivers and conductors through trainings that have enabled them to better understand how to engage with persons with disability, how to care for them and be inclusive. This is because PWD face a lot of discrimination when it comes to using public transportation. 

The effect of this intervention is that there is now a network of grassroots community groups for PWD to address the marginalisation and discrimination of PWD through the 20 disability caucus groups and 4 formally registered constituency organizations. This saw the participation of PWD at the International Day for PWD opening up a platform for engagement with the government and other stakeholders 

By the end of the project, Wambeti* was able to confront the council askaris on her rights as a PWD to be treated with dignity and respect as per article 54. She was able to be dropped at the hospital gate as this gesture was expanded to other PWD with different needs. However, more still needs to be done to overcome the long list of challenges faced by PWD