Janice Mwendamiru( left)unvails the plaque during the launch of 18 door latrine at kuja school for the deaf as the school headteacher Mrs.Jemimah Were looks on.

Safaricom Foundtion has constructed Pit latrines at Kuja special school in Rongo sub-County at a cost of sh.1.5 million beside installation of solar panel to address frequent power blackout leaving deaf children in darkness hence interfering with their communications using sign language.

Kuja special school was established way back in 1978 when leaders realized the need to establish one to cater for deaf children whose population were steadily growing and could not be enrolled in existing schools where they would not be able to compete favorably with other learners academically.

The school was started against odds of traditional belief that when a child was born deaf it was a curse and that child would not be cared for as other percieced normal children.

The school’s head teacher Jemima Were said when Kuja was established, few teachers had been trained on special needs education and it was not possible to get adequate staff who could handle the deaf learners needs.

From a humble beginning of six pupil,a house mother cum cook, Kuja today is a public mixed boarding primary school and has an enrolment of about 300 pupils with 16 TSC teachers trained on in sign language, Were added.

Were also said at initial stage, parents were not paying school fees as they did not have hope of them succeeding in life due to their disability but today that has been disapproved as brilliant learners occupying senior positions in the government and stable companies came from such special schools..

Kuja special school is growing steadily and rapidly due to support from donors and foreign sponsors who later pulled out, but other development partners like Safaricom came in and has been positive towards development of the institution.

Safaricom foundation trustee Janice Mwendameru who represented the organization during the official launch of the 18 doors pit latrines to the school said the foundation consider supporting other needs based on request through proposal presented to them in time.

Last year the school produced the best candidate in KCPE exams.The top candidate scored 352 marks out of a possible 500 and was offered a chance at Kuja Special National school within Rongo sub County.

Mwendameru appealed to parents with children of such cases not to confine them but enroll them in special schools where their needs will be catered for as “disability is not inability”