The Vanessa Grant School (VGS) provides a safe and friendly boarding facility for forty children with mild to severe mental handicap, between the ages of 6 and 15, where they can develop enough skills to enable them, at least, not to be a burden to their families and their community. Strong links with parents are considered vital, to enable them to learn how to adjust to supporting a child with a handicap.
This has been achieved thanks to generous support. There are now forty children living at the school and a small number attending on a daily basis. It is one of the best-equipped schools in the country and a model ‘Special School’.
There is a limited welfare state in Kenya. Without the VGS these children would possibly receive no education and no training and would have been condemned to a life of poverty, probably supporting themselves through begging.
The school encourages children to participate in activities such as looking after animals, planting and tending vegetables and chicken production as well as reading and writing as appropriate.
Currently the school consists of four dormitories with washing facilities, four classrooms, a central dining area, solar heating for water, sickbay, latrines, a TV room, a staff area and headteacher’s residence, a playground area including trampoline, and all of this is surrounded by a secure wall.
There has been a successful Riding For Disabled Programme which has been instrumental in helping three children to speak.
