CAPACITY BUILDING AND TRAINING

Under this program, ICS has several activities specifically designed to empower individuals, groups, and communities to improve their ability to think, speak, and act in a way that promotes the inclusion of persons with disability. Our team of experts leading the different activities have a combination of skills and knowledge from education and personal experiences, which they use to impart the right knowledge and skills to the participants to empower them.

The activities under this program include:

a) Disability mainstreaming and inclusiveness evaluation

Decent work is one of the most effective means of escaping the vicious circle of marginalization, poverty, and social exclusion. According to Kenya’s PWDs Act, 2003 all employers should reserve at least 5% of their jobs for persons with disabilities, as well as according to Article 54 2 of the Constitution of Kenya (2) which says “The State shall ensure the progressive implementation of the principle that at least five percent of the members of the public in elective and appointive bodies are persons with disabilities,” the truth is that the implementation of this policy has been met with so many challenges that both the Government and private institutions alike continue to struggle to have even 1% of their staff being people with disability. As we applaud the efforts made by a few individuals and institutions already in an attempt to enhance this inclusion, we also acknowledge that among the major barriers to implementation of the policy remains is lack of both the correct information, technical skills, and the right resources needed to implement the policy. In support of the Global Sustainable Development Goal number eight (8) on Decent Work and Economic Growth, and in line with our vision and mission, we have designed and continue to implement the project in two phases as follows;

Disability inclusiveness evaluation – in the first part of the project we do an on-site visit to the participant organization and together start a journey documenting some of the best-fit disability inclusion practices and physical structures as well as point out the gaps and bottlenecks to inclusion. We then make a report of the same and share it with the organization and move to the next steps of enhancing disability inclusion in the organization, through disability mainstreaming training among others.

Disability mainstreaming- this is the second part of the program designed to impart the appropriate and most relevant knowledge and skills as we sensitize the corporates, religious, health, learning institutions, and other organizations to have the right information, develop and cultivate the right attitude towards persons with disability, create a disability-friendly environment and intentionally include the people with disability in their programs and work opportunities. Our disability mainstreaming program is detailed with both theoretical and practical learning sessions that help participants who are potential employers, Clients, business owners, and partners to understand the best way to tailor their advertisement, interview process, selection process, and preparations both physical and attitudinal change for the rest of the team without disability and finally the interaction and creation on meaningful engagement of people with disability in both formal and informal spaces. We welcome invitations from any interested cooperates, Religious, Health, Education, Individuals, or groups to partner with us and walk the journey of creating more disability-friendly spaces by going through both the evaluation and mainstreaming program.

b) Sign language training

Communication remains the biggest barrier between the Deaf and the hearing community. We understand how much this barrier plays in the ultimate relationship and engagement between the two groups, who unfortunately have to co-exist.

Sign language is one easy and exciting way to build rapport between the Deaf and the hearing communities, as well as to enhance inclusion by overcoming the communication barrier. We at ICS are intentional about breaking the communication barrier in the family and promoting inclusion through sign language Our sign language training class targets 2 main groups as follows

i. Family members and caregivers of children with disability

The lives of children with disability born to parents without disability and the lives of children without disability born to parents with disability are not the same. This is even more evident in the situation of Deaf children born to Deaf parents because of the cultural difference between the Deaf and Hearing communities. It is estimated that about ninety percent of Deaf people are born into hearing families, out of which over eighty percent do not know sign language and therefore cannot communicate with their Deaf family members. This program is very dear to us since it comes to bridging the gap between these family members, and we know the important role the family institution plays in the life of any individual. Since most of these families are barely able to get basic needs for themselves, paying for sign language training is not anywhere on their priority list. We, therefore, mobilize resources to facilitate the training. You can adopt a family to learn sign language and basic disability inclusion etiquette and watch the transformation in their relationship as they overcome the communication barriers.

ii. General public

We also target and challenge the public to learn sign language and help overcome the barrier between the hearing and Deaf communities. We mostly target the cooperate, religious, learning, and health institutions and the public, with a minimum number of people who can start a class being 10 people.

The sign language training schedule

For both categories of training, the only pre-qualification is a willing-to-learn attitude, not a previous academic qualification, age, etc. Our classes are designed to be a 3-hour weekly program for four (4) months for basic sign language at Ksh. 60,000 per person/ family for organized groups and organizations. You can be part of this project by inviting us to conduct training in your institution, as well as adopting a family or two with a Deaf child/ Member with a disability to learn sign language.

c) ICS Bible Challenge:

We believe that part of the reason for a decline in global morality is that humanity has distanced itself from God and no longer has the urge and desire to read the Bible. We are intentional about making a difference in the spiritual lives of the people by developing and nurturing the right attitude among them towards the Bible by engaging them as teams in an exciting Bible Challenge competition with other teams with similar disability. Over the years, persons with disability have experienced challenges trying to access and engage with the word of God because more often than not it is not packaged in a disability-friendly form. It is with this in the background that the Inclusion Champions Society (ICS) under the project dubbed “ICS Bible Challenge” continues to conduct different Bible challenges for different categories of people with disability with the inaugural one having been the Deaf edition conducted in 2022 September during the International Deaf awareness month which attracted 15 teams representing the same number of churches across Kajiado, Kiambu and Nairobi, and we continue to conduct the Bible challenge yearly.

The objectives of this program include; enabling the formation of a valuable network of Bible reading champions with disability, creating an exciting way to engage with the word of God, to promoting networks, collaboration, and linkages among churches and other religious groups to enhance information sharing on how to effectively minister to the people with disability in their congregation. As we conduct these Bible Challenges, we encourage the families of the participants and the public to join and cheer the participants, and we believe they too will be positively impacted by seeing the potential of their family members with disability as they ably compete with other teams, hence be encouraged to support them. Once the challenge is over, ICS recognizes and acknowledges the winning teams and outstanding individuals, as well as partners with their respective churches to ensure they are recognized and appreciated in their churches for their participation in the Bible challenge.

We welcome individuals and groups in the same disability category to register and participate as well as collaborate with churches who either have persons with disability as part of their regular fellowships already or aspire to become more intentional about the inclusion of persons with disability in their fellowship as we together figure out more ways of bringing the gospel closer to persons with disability.