Nurturing leadership skills of young girls with disabilities: Spotlight on Rural Women Voices CBO, Kajiado

Rural Women Voices CBO is a grassroots member of the Network, based in Kajiado County under the stewardship of Rose Resiato. At Network level we have been happy to engage with Rural Women Voices CBO who bring perspectives and experiences of indigenous women with disabilities from the Maa Community. As Rose notes, ‘in the Maasai community, there are certain cultural practices that still undermine the space of women and girls with disabilities within our communities, leading to their exclusion from participating at community level.’

At Network level, we recognise the intersecting identities of our members more so groups that are likely to face further marginalisation such as indigenous, rural women and girls with disabilities.  As such, Rural Women Voices CBO is another Network member that is implementing the Ford activity where at Network level we are seeking to nurture leadership skills of young girls with disabilities. Read more about the Ford Foundation grant, as well as more about our member FEDWEN who is also implementing the activity.

Inception meeting

The inception meeting for the Mentorship Program by Rural Women Voices CBO took place on 23rd May at AIC Kajiado Child Care Centre. Rural Women Voices CBO envisions this to be a long-term leadership and mentorship program for girls with disabilities in primary and secondary schools (even though the Ford grant runs until 2026) and is one of the thematic areas that the CBO shall be putting a focus on.

Named ‘Entito Sidai Mentorship Program’, the CBO leadership intends to work with girls with disabilities from three local schools including: Isinya School for the Deaf, Ilbissil Primary School for the Deaf and AIC Girls Primary School in a long term mentorship program whose aim is to both introduce the idea of leadership to the young girls with disabilities, as well as to accompany them on a trajectory of exercising and being leaders in their communities.

In attendance during the inception meeting was a rich diversity of people from the community. This included parents of children with disabilities, teachers, community leaders, government representatives and members of the CBO.  This program seeks to create strong community support for young girls with disabilities and how this is envisioned is through involving families, teachers, and the broader community to create a supportive environment.

While addressing the meeting, Rose recalled her own childhood, growing up with a disability as a main motivator for the work that she is doing with girls and women with disabilities in her community. “I studied here in AIC girls and for many of us it was preferred to be in school than back at our homes, because we faced a lot of stigma in the community,” she said, “we now want to change the narrative. We did not have a chance to be introduced to leadership when we were youn,” she recalled. It is a reason that this program is special for Rose because part of changing the narrative about girls and women with disabilities in the Maasai community is to not just nurture these skills within the girls, but to do it collectively with their families, teachers, community people, and this way, ‘everyone is involved in the growth of the girl with a disability,” noted Rose.  

Listen to children with disabilities

One of the things that came off the meeting, is that often time, children with disabilities are hardly listened to; and hardly engaged in day-to-day chores, which hampers how they see themselves in terms of being of value to their families and communities. “Listen to your children with disabilities,” implored Rose adding that many children with disabilities, especially girls with disabilities are not exposed to the world around them. And since they are not offered opportunities to explore, it becomes difficult for them to speak for themselves, which also hinders their space in being seen as leaders, not just at home, but in their communities.

It is such lived experience that will drive the mentorship program. By being able to look back to their own experiences, the champions at Rural Women Voices CBO will work with teachers in the three schools and support the formation of clubs where different activities will be run, all geared towards supporting the young girls with disabilities in their leadership trajectory.

The champions in Rural Women Voices are also part of the champions who have been engaged with the Network before in a Ford foundation funded grant that sought to address underrepresentation of women with disabilities in leadership and governance.

At the Network level we are inspired by the work of Rural Women Voices CBO and looking forward to all the inspiring work that shall go into the mentorship program for the young girls.