Through our partnership with the US Embassy in Kenya, inABLE was able to provide laptops to our students for usage during this extended holiday break. The beneficiaries are thirty elementary school pupils from classes 5 through 7 from all our four stations.

The students connect with the instructors online and do distance learning of various skills. These include soft skills and advanced computer programs. Our mission is to give students with special needs a competitive advantage by leveraging computer-assistant technology and education.

In addition, the inABLE advocABLE program offers continuity of learning through virtual mentorship, where Advocacy Officer Julius Mbura calls to connect and assist the students weekly. This individualized attention supports the students in their learning process to improve their psycho-social life and motivates them to excel in every aspect.

Through one-on-one mentoring sessions with the learners, what comes out mainly for most of them is the lack of engaging social life activities at home. Julius gathers that the learners have an easy time making friends in school, but the case is not the same at home. Some of them are entirely isolated from society, and others are discouraged from playing or interacting with other children because the parents or guardians don’t want to deal with issues of stigma.

The Home Learning project encourages the learners to interact with their siblings and friends at home and get as much as they can on how to operate the computers given to them. It is also a chance for them to use this rare opportunity to educate others on how assistive technology works and how it makes them access reading materials.

The objective here is to open up the learners to the world, make them integrate easily with society, and enable technology to be an equalizer in how the learners study and go about their daily activities. Moreover, it helps people treat Visually Impaired Persons (VIPs) with dignity, as they, too, deserve to have fun, enjoy their hobbies, and chase their dreams. They need support, not sympathy. They need freedom.

Written by Guest Contributors: inABLE Computer Instructor Douglas Omweba and Advocacy Officer Julius Mbura