International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2024

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2024. The theme for this year is "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future." As the UN states, this theme recognises the important role that persons with disabilities play in creating a more inclusive and sustainable world for all.  It also emphasises the importance of the participation of persons with disabilities in decision-making processes that affect their lives.   

Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that children with disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children. This includes the right to education - without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity. Being included in the classroom should start early for children with disabilities and this is exactly what drove Sister Gaudencia Nafula Wanyonyi to create the Anna Dengel Education Centre in Ang’iya, Kenya, which opened its doors in July 2021. The centre fills an identified learning gap for local children living with HIV, born to HIV positive mothers in and around Ang’iya, and other marginalised children. Without this new educational facility, these children risk exclusion from education in the local area because they are living with HIV, have a disability or a medical condition, are girls, orphans or are too small to cross the river to school. 

Today, 110 pupils, aged 4-12 years, one third of them living with HIV, are learning at the centre.  District education officials, who inspect the school regularly, are delighted to see the progress that the children are making. Officials have observed that the centre is already making a real difference by improving literacy levels in a region of very high illiteracy.  The number of boys and girls is almost equal, which is very impressive because it means that parents and guardians equally value education of the girl child - unlike before, when boys were given priority for school and girls stayed at home to help with household chores. A number of trainee teachers are now coming to do their teaching practice at the school. 

Given high levels of poverty in families, a daily nutrition programme boosts child immunity.  For those children, who are undergoing antiretroviral therapy, meals are essential before they take their medication; for other children, breakfast and lunch simply help their concentration in class and supports healthy growth.

As well as formal learning, some of the children have participated in extra curriculum activities, such as singing. Indeed, they sing so well that when they were invited to perform at county level, they won the top prize.  The children and their teacher feel very proud of this amazing achievement.

This year, Sister Gaudencia is also delighted to announce that Pius, who has sickle cell disease, was among 22 Pre-primary pupils who graduated and, in 2025, he and his twin brother will be transitioning to Primary Grade 1. The wheelchair that she acquired for him in 2023 has made such a difference to his life and mobility. 

Sister Gaudencia’s dream is to extend the classrooms on the school site to offer Grade 3 and 4 primary level education, too.  The education service was originally designed to be subsidised by fees paid by parents, but many are too poor to pay in full.  Developing and sustaining the centre for the future is an important focus at present. To assist this, a parents’ association has been formed at the school. Thanks to funding from the Diocese of Essen, some of the parents have hired land and are farming it - both to nourish the children and to sell surplus produce, such as maize and beans, to supplement school fees. 

2024 has also seen the construction of what will become, in the near future, the Anna Dengel Community-Based Rehabilitation Centre in Adjumani, Northern Uganda.  Adjumani District in the West Nile region hosts the highest number of refugee settlements in the country.  The new centre will be used to provide community-based rehabilitation services for refugees with disabilities who are living in the settlements. The design of the services is being informed by evidence-based data on the needs of persons with disabilities in both the refugee and host communities, which has been meticulously collected and analysed by Sister Christine Lekuru.  In turn, she is being supported in the planning process by two senior experts from Austria, who visited MMS in Adjumani as part of Jugend Eine Welt’s visiting scheme.  We look forward to telling you more about these exciting activities, as they take shape in the New Year. 

In the meantime, Sister Ursula Maier, uses mobile clinics to offer invaluable outreach to children with special needs and their families, living in and around Kulmasa, Northern Ghana.

We, the Society, remain deeply committed to implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at every level and reflecting inclusive, non-discriminatory approaches in all that we do. As Anna Dengel used to instruct in her lifetime: “'We are called … to participate in the birth of a new world reality …  Love is the impetus.'