By Ekuwam Sylvester
The Eldoret City Marathon organizing committee, in collaboration with sponsors such as Gulf Royal, has included persons with disabilities in their efforts to fight climate change, in line with their theme of “Climate Action.”
On Friday, the team initiated a tree-planting campaign at the Eldoret Special School for the Intellectually Impaired to educate them about ways to combat climate change.
Speaking during the event, Eldoret City Marathon Director Moses Tanui lauded the sponsors for taking part in the noble initiative of tree planting for climate action and reiterated the need to involve the Eldoret Special School for the Intellectually Impaired in greening the environment to ensure a clean atmosphere.
Tanui was impressed by the abilities demonstrated by the learners with multiple disabilities, as seen in the items they could make, such as beadwork, woven baskets, and tailored garments. He added that the public and other stakeholders need to recognize and value the abilities of disabled learners and support them with learning resources and other needs, such as food, clothing, and more.
Tanui commended the school administration and assured them that the marathon, working together with other partners, would aid in providing learning resources and other requirements to facilitate a better learning environment.
“Our theme is Climate Action, and this is what we are doing in a special school. We also have special hearts in the marathon that will continue supporting the school. We have seen that these special people need special attention, and this is what we are doing today as we plant trees to set a good example as the Eldoret City Marathon,” Tanui said.
“We will continue to support the special learners acquire materials required for learners since their learning is mainly practical and requires much support of materials,” he added.
The marathon team and partners gifted the school with food items and learning materials.
In her remarks, School Board Chair Sophia Gachanja, a nurse at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), which partners with the school to provide medical care to the children, termed the initiative a noble course of making the environment clean.
“This is something unique because many people in this area of Uasin Gishu and outside know little about this special school, with students with multiple disabilities, not one, not two, they don’t talk, they don’t walk, and some have many other issues which are so difficult to deal with,” she explained.
On his part, Eldoret Special School for the Intellectually Impaired Head Teacher David Yegon acknowledged the initiative, which involved the learners in planting trees. He said that after school, the learners would continue planting trees at home for the benefit of future generations.
“Today they planted trees and they will grow, no one will know it was planted by a child with a disability. The same will also be done at home. We are doing this in order to embrace the government policy of planting trees every year,” he said.
Yegon called for continued collaboration with partners to help the children grow and develop survival skills so that they can be independent when they finish schooling. He further hinted that the community tends to neglect such people with disabilities, leaving them helpless and poor.
“You are our partners, these children need us in order to develop, the moment we forget them we are doing something against them. We invite you to work together with us to do something more, so that the world may know that despite their condition, disability is not inability,” Yegon added.