School where disabled children are transported from dormitory to class on wheelbarrow

A pupil of Charera Primary School uses a wheelbarrow to transport his colleagues to classroom. [Photo: Nikko Tanui/Standard]

Ordinarily, a wheelbarrow is used to transport materials here and there, especially at construction sites.

But at Charera Primary School, which has a small home for physically challenged children, an old wheelbarrow is being used to transport disabled children from their dormitory to classrooms.

The school is located in Roret Division, Bureti Constituency.

Kericho County has a total of 42 disabled children (22 boys and 20 girls), who rely on only one wheelchair, thus forcing the school community to use a wheelbarrow.

School headmaster Wesley Ngetich admits that the institution’s special unit, whose idea was mooted by former Education Minister Dr Taita Towett back in 1977, has only one wheelchair and they have to do with an old wheelbarrow that is falling apart.

“The sight of disabled children being carried using a wheelbarrow is not a pretty one.

“But what can the school community do when we don’t have enough wheelchairs but use anything to move the children around?” he posed.

Ngetich points out that the lack of ramps to connect the over 1,000 metres between classrooms and the children’s dormitory posed a challenge to push the wheelbarrow and the single wheelchair around.

Since it would take a long time for all the children to be carried using the wheelbarrow, physically able children in upper classrooms help out by carrying around their physically challenged colleagues.

Standard Seven pupil Collins Kirui, 16, is one of the volunteers who have been carrying 15-year-old Victor Kipchirchir, who is a Class Three pupil at the integrated school.

Can’t move

“I can’t bear to see my friend struggling to get about on his own and that is why I don’t mind using my strength to carry him from his classroom to the dormitory and wherever else he wants to be taken,” says Kirui.

Felix Kiplangat, 15, is paralysed and can’t move around unaided.

“I wish I had a wheelchair to enable me move around because I cannot always depend on my friends to pick me up and give me a piggyback ride whenever I want to move around,” he says.

Ten-year-old Standard Two pupil Sylvia Chepkemoi says she can only be able to laboriously crawl around.

She says though the wheelbarrow allows her to be moved from point to point, she complains of discomfort.

“At least three disabled pupils have to be lifted to the wheelbarrow.

“It is uncomfortable when it is being pushed through the rough footpath from the dormitory to classroom and the toilets,” she says.

A former alumni and one of the 10 pioneer pupils of the special unit, Lorna Mutai, says she can’t stomach the fact that a wheelbarrow is used to ferry children around.

She vows to lead a campaign to seek wheelchairs for the pupils.

Dependable society

“The children are in need of assistance in order to give them a chance to be dependable members of the society in the future,” she says.

During the visit to the school yesterday, Benjamin Koech, a person living with disability, was moved by lack of wheelchairs for the pupils and donated two old tricycles he had been using.

“At least I can use crutches and I can manage to crawl around and I would rather donate my tricycles to the children instead of seeing them suffer,” he said.

Kericho County nominated assembly member Geoffrey Bii, who represents people with disabilities, says it was unacceptable for society to let disabled children suffer.

He vows to lobby the assembly and Governor Paul Chepkwony’s administration to set aside Sh10,000 per special needs child in the county to buy wheelchairs and other crucial items for the group.

“All the elected county leaders must demonstrate that they care for people with disability by supporting initiatives that can assist them, especially children,” he said.

Apart from mobility, the school’s toilets are a challenge to the children since they were not constructed to support their special needs.

The dormitories are also becoming overcrowded due to the growing number of special needs children seeking admission in the school.