At least 3,164 children with disabilities in Mombasa have benefitted from the free school transport programme since it was started in 2021.
The School Transport for Children with Disabilities (STRIDE) programme was started to improve school enrolment for children with disabilities in the county.
The stakeholders led by Labour CS Florence Bore held a meeting on Friday to review the various projects undertaken to improve the social well-being of children with disabilities.
The project is being implemented jointly by the Mombasa county government, National Council for Persons with Disabilities with technical support from the United Nations Children's Fund.
Bore has lauded the support from Unicef in complementing government efforts to assist the most vulnerable in our society.
She has also called for an expansion of the programme to cover more beneficiaries in more counties.
The project offers school transport to children with disabilities and provides cash transfers to households with children with disabilities to help cover school-related costs.
This was after it emerged that many children with disabilities are not able to go to school due to transport challenges and stigma or due to a lack of disability-friendly institutions.
As a result, some parents opt to hide their children at home.
On their part, Norwegian Ambassador Andreas Holm and Unicef Kenya country representative Shaheen Nilofer have called for more synergies with different partners to address funding gaps.
NCPWD executive director Harun Hassan reiterated the need for accurate data to inform social interventions, calling for additional investment from the county government in the disability medical assessment process.
