Beth Wanjiku Ndirangu, 29, has learnt to look past cerebral palsy to live a fulfilling life and help advocate for others who are not able to. PHOTO| COURTESY
My focus is on education and employment. I want children living with these disabilities to have the right to attend school and the adults to be given opportunities to earn a living.
A lot of employers are reluctant to invest in people living with disabilities. An employer will only hire you because the law requires them to, and they will see it as a favour.
Instead of investing in you and giving you responsibilities, they will give you a desk in the corner. This way, a person living with a disability can never grow.
“My journey began 29 years ago at Pumwani Hospital in Nairobi. My mother had a difficult birth, which resulted in my brain being deprived of oxygen. So I was born with cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects muscle tone, my ability to move my limbs in a coordinated purposeful way and my speech.
“While I am not privy to how the experience of finding out that their child was disabled was, I imagine that it must have been devastating for my young parents. They say that it takes a village to raise a child. I believe that this is especially true for a child with a disability. I remember having a mostly normal happy childhood. This is largely because our family, the community around us and the church, treated me like they did any other child.
