A common saying which i completely agree with, “When we educate a girl, you educate the whole community.” My addition is when we educate a girl with a disability, we educate the whole country. Girls are the foundations of our communities, the source of our life and wealth and our bridges for our future generations.
Indeed, we need to celebrate them and nurture them every day. We also need to empower them to become phenomenal women and leaders.
Empowerment begins with value and in Kenya, our communities mistakenly devalue their girls based on their cultural beliefs and way of life. Little girls are viewed as dowry prizes and wives. The boys are educated first before the girls, because they are not considered worth educating and investing into. Boys are the heads of our homes, also overprotected and spoilt of the household duties. The opposite would be said for the girls, where a 7year old girl can cook tea, serve the men and clean the dishes.
Girls with physical or mental impairments have a difficult time fitting into the ideal girl child image. Some girls are severely dependent while others are independent or semi dependent. Girls with disabilities are not viewed as brides, wives or mothers, they are not viewed as educated or successful thus we witness minimal investment given to them. Girls with disabilities are less likely to be enrolled in school than boys with disabilities and other girls without disabilities. Girls with disabilities are less likely to be taught house chores and self-independence skills than other girls. Due to the societal norms and cultural biases, they face the double discrimination of gender and disability. Girls with different abilities are seemingly the world’s most marginalized.
Luckily these are just mentalities and attitudes, which can be altered in our communities. There is hope for our society and girls. For starters, we need to value girls with disabilities, we need to celebrate them in their abilities and impairments. We also need to identify the challenges and barriers they are facing, mitigate and find solutions.
In conclusion, celebrating girls means empowering them and that is through education. Education is a priceless investment that we must provide to girls with disabilities. Studies show that "the literacy rate for adults with disabilities is 3% and for women with disabilities the literacy rate is even lower, at 1%". There are several factors contributing to this cycle, lack of access, lack of affordability, inaccessible physical infrastructure and many others. However as the times change, we must now show more intention to breaking this cycle.
We must ensure greater efforts towards promoting inclusive education in gender equality principles. We must encourage more positive attitudes towards girls with disabilities in the educational institutions. Finally, we must ingrain into our society the importance of educating a girl with a disability.
Maria Njeri