BY ROBERT WANYONYI

It has taken the youth by storm as a tool of social interaction, but social media has also proved to be a powerful tool for resources mobilisation.

It is a tool that is increasingly getting popular with the youth making politicians hunt for the youths’ votes through Facebook, Tweeter, Google Plus, and You Tube.

But a group of youth from western Kenya have chosen to use Facebook for a noble cause – to help a marginalised group.

Indeed, dozens of disabled people living in Bumula Constituency, western Kenya may not know anything about Facebook, but through this social media network, some of them now have been able to own wheelchairs and even crutches.

Noble initiative

A noble initiative by a group on Facebook calling itself the County Caucus aimed at helping disabled persons neglected by the Government and the community saw its efforts rewarded with overwhelming support.

Well-wishers responding to the group’s call on the social media put a smile on the faces of at least eight disabled persons from Bumula, a region that statistically has the largest number of persons with disabilities in Western Province.

Beneficiaries, some of who arrived at the venue of the function crawling on all fours, were full of praise for the initiative that has changed their lives.

“God has answered my prayers. This is a gift of my life. I can now be mobile without straining,” said a jovial Peter Wanyama after receiving crutches. He added: “It has not been easy and efforts to get assistance from organisations that work with people with disabilities have been futile.”

“At one time I wished that a miracle would happen and President Kibaki gives me the wheelchair he was using when he got an accident while on the campaign trail,” said Wanyama amid laughter from residents who witnessed the exercise.

“There are still many of our colleagues out there who still need support but they cannot even manage to leave their homesteads,” he noted.

Diana Lukoosi, an official of the group, says they were touched by the plight of people living with disability from the region.

“Their deplorable state of living touched our hearts and we decided to raise money to help them. With the tough economic times, we were forced to improvise ways of raising funds without pain,” she explains.

Says Lukoosi: “Facebook was an option and we decided to explore it. The end results were overwhelming.”

She says statistics about the number of people living with disability and their living conditions are worrying.

“Statistics that we have show that Bumula has approximately sixty disabled persons in each location. These are the figures that guided us to begin here before moving out to the rest of the country with this initiative,” says Lukoosi, the administrator of the group whose membership has now hit 5,349. It started with only two people.

 

Ordinary donors

She notes that the County Caucus begun this initiative early this year. Out of the money collected, members have so far been able to purchase four wheel chairs and eight crutches at a cost of Sh133,000.

She says they have been raising the money from ordinary people who are touched by the pictures of the victims posted on Facebook.

“We decided to post pictures of some of the victims to show the world how serious this matter was and the move has touched hearts of many who have contributed,” she adds.

“We know there is still a large number of persons with disabilities around the country that we are yet to reach. With support, we intend to carry on with this initiative and reach all of them,” she notes.

Changing lives

She says the group encourages its members to contribute even as little as Sh20 through its M-pesa number, a move she hopes if sustained by Kenyans of goodwill is going to change the lives of many in the society.

Lukoosi says that through the social networking forum, the County Caucus has established another group, the ATC African County Caucus that aims to enlighten people in African countries on the use of social forums like Facebook, Twitter, My Space and others to reach out to the less fortunate people in the continent.

“We intend to use these big forums not only to discuss our social lives but think of something outside the box that can impact something positive on our communities,” says Joel Amusavi, another administrator of the group.

Other causes

Lukoosi says apart from its latest initiative, the County Caucus also raised funds and donated a laptop and other educational materials to John Nalianya, the top student during last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations immediately the results were announced.

“We tried out a pilot project and the overwhelming response and support that we received encouraged us to continue donating what we have as a means of returning something back to the community,” she says.

As the African continent continues to grapple with many challenges ranging from poverty, illiteracy, hunger and disease, networking through social platforms might prove to be the way forward in trying to address such problems