Orione Community Training Centre Kenya
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Mission Statement
Orione Community Training Centre , is guided by a mission to help learners in need of special support to form a good character and understand their responsibility as member of the community and develop a constructive attitude to life, so they can reach their maximum development and independence accompanied by the members of their family, professionals, benefactors and community.
About This Cause
ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND Orione Community Training Centre was founded in Kenya in 2005 by the Catholic Congregation of Sons of Divine Providence to promote the life and conditions of children and youth with intellectual disabilities, through Special Education, Rehabilitation and Vocational Training currently in horticultural farming. We work with children and youth from the ages of 3 years to 34 years with conditions like Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Down syndrome, Delayed milestones and both micro and hydrocephalus. A majority of them come from very poor family backgrounds and this in addition to their conditions make them vulnerable to discrimination and stigmatization from the community limiting their chances to access better health services, education and employment opportunities , like any other member of the society. Currently we have two Centres located in Kandisi in Kajiado North County where we attend to 60 students and Kaburgi in Murang’a County with 40 students PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT The primary purpose of this project is to provide the necessary services of healthcare, rehabilitation, special education and vocational training in horticultural farming, inclusion and the promotion and protection of the rights of children and youth with special need in order to help them improve in their conditions and make them productive and functioning members of the community. OUR DAILY ACTIVITIES 1. Habilitation and Rehabilitation; Our students present a number of conditions that require both habilitation and rehabilitation for this reason, under this area we have; a. Physical rehabilitation –Students with walking disabilities, spasticity and delayed developmental milestones like sitting undergo therapy sessions and as a result, some of them improve in their conditions and are able to participate more in learning activities and their day to day living activities. b. Occupational therapy – Most of our students as a result of their life conditions are unable to perform activities of daily living which include dressing, toileting skills, feeding skills, eye and motor coordination. This limits their ability to undertake and participate in learning and life skills. For this reason we provide them with occupational therapy sessions, where they undergo therapy sessions to train them to acquire the lacking and not fully developed skills. c. Sensor stimulation – We also provide as part of rehabilitation and education, sensor stimulation where students especially those who due to their conditions like Autism, are hyper-active with short concentration spans and for that reason attend sensory integration sessions in our dark room fitted with special materials like changing colours, toys, music, and touch simulative materials . These stimulations with different elements help them improve or even recover by stimulating areas of their brain with damage. This therapy helps them calm down as well as improving their concentration and memory retention, thus making them able to improve in their daily activities. d. Speech therapy – This is a new area that we began working on since July 2017 after seeing how our young students especially those between the ages of 3 and 10 years were making efforts to articulate their first words and to communicate . 2. Education Here we have; a. Special educational program where we use the Individualized educational plan (IEP) whose purpose is to meet the students’ needs based on the student’s development rather than predetermined expectations based on grade level in a non-restrictive environment. b. Feeding program - Provision of two meals per day which includes breakfast and lunch to each of our students to both improve their health and diet and to make them strong to attend class room activities. Also for those who suffer or are at risk of malnourishment, we put them through a peanut butter supplement to help them recover. We also have fresh vegetables from our farm that supplements our feeding program. c. Transport - Ensuring that we facilitate the school attendance of our special students by offering transport in form of a bus which picks them up at various stages in the morning and drops them off in the afternoon. This is because the students come from far and poor background areas also due to their conditions like cerebral palsy, they cannot walk to the Centre. 3. Vocational training in farming To promote inclusion and self-reliance we have a farm of 4 acres where we train and empower our students on horticultural farming a process that starts when they are 16 years and runs for 2 years. Once they attain the age of 18, we evaluate their performance and we employ them to work as farmers in our farm where we prepare job contracts for them and open bank salary accounts where their salary is paid into. The main purpose of this is to help achieve food security for the Centre while socially and economically empowering our students to participate and contribute to community development. 4. Inclusion and Integration We have a club “Orione Club” currently consisting of 100 children from our local community. These children come tour Centre every Saturday of the month to receive Christian formation, play and share a meal with our special students for integration and inclusion. In addition to this, we also have Don Orione Friends which is a group of people from our community who support our work through different ways like volunteerism, sharing of ideas and they receive formation in family life and in the charism of Don Orione through monthly activities. OUR ACHIEVEMENTS; Our institutions are present in over 33 counties and here in Kenya we have 13 years of experience working with these group of vulnerable children and youth and in the course of this years ; a. On the 23th August 2011 we received an award- Best Practice on the Protection of the Rights for People with Disabilities from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. b. A visit of the First Lady of Kenya, Margret Kenyatta on 23rd October 2013, and this event was greatly covered by the local media houses which as a result had a big exposition about the Centre. c. Received an invitation on 15th March 2016 and a Certificate of Participation from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities through its former president Professor. Maria Soledad Cisternas to attend the 15th Session of the Committee in Geneva Switzerland as an opportunity for us to from other countries experience. d. In February 2018, six of our graduated youth, started their own farming project. e. On December 2018 we received the visit of Ms. María Soledad Cisternas Reyes of Chile – United Nations, Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility during the launch of the good treatment of children and youth with disabilities. f. Six new student farmers have been employed to work in our farm in Kandisi. g. Received the visit and letter of recognition from Mr. Nils Katberg ,a member of the Board of Directors at Special Olympics International