Mr. Jonathan Metet, a disability advocate from Kilifi County speaking to Nation. The discrimination his daughter went through in search of education turned him into an advocate fighting for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Rejection my daughter faced turned me into an advocate for disabled

By Maureen Ongala, Reporter, Nation Media Group

Every day, many people with disabilities
flock to his Facebook page, each with different problems that need to be addressed. Their requests need urgent intervention, and because of his devotion to helping this group of vulnerable citizens, he addresses many issues through his postings.

His experiences struggling to get a school for his daughter inspired Jonathan Metet, a finance officer at Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), to start championing the rights of the disabled.

In an interview with Nation. In Africa in Kilifi town, Mr. Metet said he could not find a school to take in his hearing-impaired firstborn daughter, Blessy Chepkuri, 18. An ear, nose, and throat doctor had advised Mr. Metet to take the girl to a normal school. She was to sit at the front of the class and get a hearing aid.

 “My daughter developed hearing complications after six months after a long illness, which led to her disability. However, even after the doctor’s recommendations that she should be enrolled in a normal school, none wanted to admit her due to her condition,” he said. He said his daughter attended four different primary schools before he resolved to take her to the Kibarani School for the Deaf in Kilifi.

But Blessy was transferred to St Kizito Litein School for the Deaf in 2018 in Standard Six and sat her KCPE examinations in 2020. “Some schools do not accept disabled children. We used to be denied chances at school because no teacher was willing to bear the responsibility of handling my deaf daughter,” he said.

“We even tried to explain to teachers what the doctor had recommended but they could brush off the report.” The negative reception they received at normal schools disheartened Mr Metet and his wife. The social and financial struggles the family went through in search of treatment for their daughter prompted him to start helping other families with disabled children.

“I was stuck financially in 2008 and I could not access loans from my sacco due to debts I already had while seeking treatment for my daughter until my colleagues came to my aid and held a fundraiser for me,” he said. His daughter was supposed to attend weekly checkups following an operation in 2006.

"I went through a lot of challenges as I sought treatment and education for my daughter. This made me ask myself how poor parents in rural villages managed to educate their disabled children,” he said. His advocacy for the rights of the disabled countrywide through his Facebook page saw him appointed to the Disability Mainstreaming Committee at TUM.

“I use my Facebook page to share important information for people to see and also disseminate it to the grassroots to help others,” he said.“This page also helps in calling for action from the relevant departments when a person with a disability has been denied their rights.”

One of his successes involved a young man who had been denied admission at Kenya Coast National Polytechnic because he was deaf.  Mr. Metet picked up the matter and brought it to the attention of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWDs) and the student was admitted.

He is in the forefront to ensure that disabled people get wheelchairs, financial support meant for vulnerable citizens, and bursaries. He also helps them register with NCPWDs.

“It is difficult to pass a message to a person with disabilities without a proper mode of communication. Being a parent to a disabled child and being a person living with disabilities takes a lot of will. Some of them lose hope in life due to the stigma and discrimination they are going through,” he added. He said the only way to support this vulnerable group is to empower them through education and access to the right information.

“In matters of disability, all that one needs is support from the family and community. In some families, disabled people are rejected and disowned by their spouses, being accused of bringing a bad omen to their families,” he said.

Because of the many challenges parents of disabled children face, he said, some of them do not see any value in them and they do not take them to school.

Blessy is expected to join form one in August.

As the Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy is focused on human rights for people with disabilities worldwide, it is amazing to discover that more than 100 years ago, Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International also focused on helping children with disabilities. 

ROTARY AND CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES 

By Eduardo Muniz Werneck

Member The Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy

On May 28th, 1907, the Chamber of Commerce of the small town of Elyria, Ohio, met to decide on the construction of a larger and more modern hospital to replace the existing one, with few resources and only one nurse, and whose administrator had just resigned. Edgar F. Allen, a successful merchant from the city, was among those present.

Two days later, a collision between two crowded trams in the city left dozens of people injured and nine dead, including Edgar's eldest son, aged eighteen. Doctors later claimed that the deaths were due to delays in care, as the wounded had to be taken to neighboring towns, as the local hospital was unable to treat them.

A little over a year later, a new, modern hospital with a team of efficient doctors opened its doors in the small community, thanks mainly to the effort and dedication of Edgar Allen, who took over the project, seeking resources among the entrepreneurs of the city.

In 1911, an 11-year-old boy with infantile paralysis (polio), Jimmy Bodak, is brought to the hospital for treatment. Edgar ends up getting attached to Jimmy, who calls him "Daddy." Four years later, following a suggestion by Dr. Baldwin, the doctor who had brought Jimmy to the hospital, Edgar opened a new hospital, with the sole purpose of treating children with physical disabilities.

Due to the low influx of patients, which Edgar knew existed in the region, he asks for help from civil organizations and the Rotary Club of Toledo, a city neighboring Elyria, ends up getting involved in the project. A committee is created within the club to deal with the program, and little by little other clubs in the state joined the cause. In 1919 the Ohio Society for Children with Disabilities is founded. When Arch Klumph, of the RC of Cleveland, Ohio, becomes president of RI, he suggests that all Rotary Clubs develop projects around the theme.

Clubs across the country seek Edgar Allen to learn about his work, and eventually, Paul Harris himself becomes so involved that he ends up chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Society for Children with Disabilities, created in 1921 by Rotarians from various states and Canada.

With the end of the emphasis on commercial exchange among Rotarians, the cause came to offer an alternative to clubs that were looking for a new objective to dedicate themselves, and this represented perhaps the biggest project of Rotary until the appearance of Polio Plus. And the cause of Children with Disabilities almost became an official RI program at the 1923 Convention

About the Author

Edwardo, who has been in Rotary for more than 40 years, is a former District Governor and is a member of the Sao Leopoldo Leste Rotary in Brazil, D 4670.  He is a Rotary Historian and  is also an honorary member of The Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy