By Kabaraji Richard
More than 3,000 children with intellectual disability in Trans Nzoia have received aid from members of the Special Olympics Kenya.
Speaking during a medical camp at Kitale School, Special Olympics chair Thuo Chege expressed concerns over an increase in the number of mentally handicapped children in the country.
Chege says the condition has led to an increase in the number of children who have eyesight and hearing impairment.
“We are seeing an increase in numbers of children with this condition due to lack of awareness especially in the rural areas but we are also concerned about middle-class parents who are hiding their mentally incapacitated children due to fear of being laughed at by their neighbours,” he said.
The Special Olympics chairperson is now asking parents with children who are intellectually disabled to explore the numerous opportunities that are aimed at benefiting the children.
“There are so many opportunities for the children including sports like Paralympics, deaf Olympics and Special Olympics plus educational opportunities through integrated special schools with some of them ending up as graduates,” Thuo said.
Medical checkups
On her part, Dr Phyllis Mwangi said most of the patients have never attended hospitals for checkups leading to eye problems with most cases being congenital usually occurring during birth.
“Most of them need surgery for cataracts and allergic conjunctivitis conditions that can be corrected if detected early and with regular medical checkups.”
Some of the beneficiaries have expressed gratitude for the camp adding that most of the cases discovered they had no idea of.
“We have three hundred children in our special schools who need aid and would like the activity to extend to rural parts of the county,” noted Antony Kandie, a parent with a special needs child.
Other parents were shocked by the outcome of the check-up as several children were found with underlying conditions.
“I only knew my son was mentally handicapped but he has been found with eye problems, a condition I did not know all these years and he has been put on medication,” said one of the parents.
