Rotarians add cheer to children

By Dann Okoth

Children with disabilities get a chance to smile, play and share experiences every year.

The occasion has become a grand annual fete, which the children look forward to.

This year is no exception, and the Rotary Club will again treat the physically and mentally challenged children to a big bash Saturday.

More than 2,000 children from 35 schools in and around Nairobi will be feted at the Jamhuri Park, Nairobi, in what has become a rally for the challenged young members of society.

Minister for Gender Esther Murugi and the event founder, Manu Chandaria are expected to grace the occasion.

The spectacle provides a day’s entertainment and interaction for the children.

Children with disability play at school. The Rotary Club of Nairobi will fete more than 2,000 such children at Jamhuri Park, Nairobi on Saturday. Photo: Joseph Mathenge

The Standard Group is the media sponsor for the event.

Tomorrow’s event will be the 30th of an annual charity function initiated by Mr Chandaria, one of Kenya’s leading industrialists and former President of the Rotary Club.

The main aim is to de-stigmatise mental and physical disability, especially among children and encourage parents and guardians to take care of, and educate them.

"We seek to bring awareness that there are children among us who are disabled and their parents need assistance," said the President of the Rotary Club, Nairobi chapter, Ashok Shah when he called on Standard Group Managing Director Paul Wanyagah at I&M Bank Building, on Monday. Mr Shah appealed for more sponsors to supplement logistics and other aid for the event.

The head of publicity, Mr Bernard Kiraithe said the day follows a tradition set by the club’s forerunners.

"The programme continues the philanthropy of the Manu Chandaria Foundation, which in 1979 entertained nearly 800 physically and mentally challenged children at Jamhuri Park," he says.

Sponsors

Popular artistes Jua Kali and comedian Nyambane are among entertainers who will thrill the children.

A group of sponsors has volunteered to provide services ranging from transport to refreshment and food.

For several years, Mr Kiraithe added, the Chandaria Foundation funded the programme, supported by several corporate, civil society and individual donors.

In 1980, to mark UN International Year of the Handicapped and commemorate Rotary Club’s 75th anniversary, the Rotary Clubs of Nairobi organised a day to entertain challenged children from various schools.

About 1,200 children were feted. The following year, the programme was adopted as an annual event of the Rotary Clubs of Nairobi, and remains the biggest inter-club project of the Rotarians.

"At the rally the children are treated to music, dance, song, acrobatic shows, mini-train rides and rally car racing among other entertainment," Kiraithe said.

He says many of the children look forward to the event as it provides them with open-air entertainment and a forum to interact with each other, Rotarians and civil society leaders.

The first Rotary Club in Kenya, the Rotary Club of Nairobi, was founded in 1930, making it the third oldest in Africa, after Johannesburg and Cairo.

The clubs mainly engage in education and water projects to combat poverty and disease.