KPO was a God send messenger of hope for Mwei

Nicholas Mwei was a jovial young man, barely in his early twenties. The future beckoned with a spark of radiance as he celebrated success in the 1982 Form 4 examinations. Little did he know that his life was to change completely. As he was traveling along Eldoret-Nakuru Highway, Mwei was involved in a fatal accident that left him paralyzed for life. 

After rehabilitation at the National Spinal Injury Hospital, Mwei encountered the harsh reality of living with disability and the obvious shackles of poverty. He became a pale shadow of the jovial, optimist Mwei; life became a predictable trend characterized by loneliness and desperation. Mwei would crumble with bitterness and curse his worn out wheelchair for 24 years.

When KPO traced him to Kesses, a village in the North Rift, dejection was written all over his face. When he was recruited into KPO home counselling and community based empowerment programmes, Mwei got his smile back.
 
He couldn’t hold his joy when KPO gave him a community phone,  simu ya jamii and a wheelchair. Mwei is an inspiring entrepreneur serving the very community that looked him down when he was idle and lonely. He later bought a plot and erected a shop. “KPO gave me a fishing net that will serve me forever”; he had this to say. He is now a towering figure of hope to the members of North Rift Paraplegics Self Help Group.

Lameck Mogeni got back to school

Barely in his teens when he became a paraplegic after falling from a tree, Lameck knew that his hopes had reached a vanishing point.

Perhaps as they say, calamities never come singly…Lameck was also an orphan under the tutelage of his uncle. He however went to several hospitals in Kisii District that did little to alleviate his predicament. Lameck came face to face with the pangs of bedsores that had blemished his youthful, athletic body.  His hopes had reached a vanishing point; his dreams diminished like a setting sun. Lameck was left poor in every sense of the word.

KPO officers discovered him in the highlands of Kisii; transferred him to the National Spinal Injury Hospital. After rehabilitation, medication that involved grafting, Lameck regained his energy. He later went back to a primary school in Kisii! Talk of the proverbial cat with nine lives!

“I will work hard to realize my dreams; I will one day become a doctor and treat many paraplegics”

Just in time!
Catherine Wanjiku knits sweaters that keep Kiambu people warm

The weight of gender prejudice compounded with disability profiling is unimaginable.
This is what confronted Wanjiku when he got the accident. She went through the most trying moments in her life.  With a family to look after, Catherine knew that she had to work twice as hard. However, while in hospital, she acquired skills in knitting and beads work.

Then came the hard part…even in her fondest dreams, she couldn’t imagine that she would acquire a knitting machine; it was just too expensive for her. With support from donors, KPO through its community based empowerment initiatives bought a brand new machine for her. Catherine now knits sweaters that keep the people of Kiambu warm.

Her entrepreneurial prowess has endeared her to the locals; she now heads several women groups and is a key player in church functions. More over, she is an official of Lari Paraplegics Self Help Group!

“ I owe my success to KPO, they changed my dream into reality. Thank you very much,” Catherine Wanjiku.