The Kenya Ports Authority has donated furniture and other items worth Sh300, 000 to the Kakamega School for the Deaf.
The donation is part of the Community Social Responsibility in western Kenya by KPA ahead of the Nyanza and Western Corporate Golf Tournament at the Kakamega Sports club on Saturday.
The items included double bunker beds, mattresses, horseshoe tables, chairs, double blankets, mosquito nets and sporting gears.
The items were handed over to the school by general manager for infrastructure and development Eng Vincent Sidai who represented the acting KPA general manager Ambassador John Mwangemi.
“It is worth noting that, we have, in our previous missions, made similar community interventions in Kilifi school for the deaf, Entebbe (Uganda), and Machakos school for the physically challenged,” Mwangemi said.
The school was started in 1998 by the Church of God in East Africa. The institution has 80 students, 35 girls and 45 boys.
The school head teacher David Mutavi said that that parents of deaf pupils still face serious challenges in communication as the parents needs to be trained in sign language.
“The children with disabilities are looked at as curses in the society and this curtails their chances of accessing education. Some are not even brought to school by the parents and the school has to go for them from home,” he said.
He said the school is still looking for partners to support it so it can cater for more deaf children.
Kakamega Sports Captain Pape Sembi said that KPA is the first corporate organisation to chosen to do CSR in a community before a golf tournament.
Mwangemi said that the organisation has implemented over 60 community projects largely around the Coast region and other areas where it has presence in the last two decades.
The projects include construction of schools, clinics, tree planting, execution of medical camps, and sports sponsorships seek to complement the education, health, sports, and environment protection sectors, among others.
