ways that changed communities - SNV

Grace Seneiya has three awards under
her belt and boasts a strong family.
But above all, she has managed to
save over 500 disabled people in Samburu
in the last 10 years, some from
ostracisation and others from death.
In 2003, she attended a workshop on
community work, retrogressive cultural
practices and resource mobilisation.
She left so fired up and possessed by
a passion to help the disabled.
“I started it all in my small room at
Kampi Chang’aa, a sprawling slum in
Maralal. I’d round up disabled children
and we would share everything,
including my small salary. They slept
in one room while I used the other,”
recalls Grace.
“Every time I sit and watch the children
alive and lively, I get the greatest
joy. I mean, there is nothing better I
could offer humanity apart from giving
these children a chance to live and do
so with dignity,” she says as she cuddles
Guardian, her month-old baby.
In Samburu, woe unto you if you are
born disabled. You will be called a
ngoki, a most derogatory name meaning
‘cursed’ or ‘demon-possessed’.
The amazing Grace of
Samburu
Published on 22/10/2010
in Instict Magazine
- Standard on Saturday
According to the culture, such a child
ought to be killed. Disabled children
are left in the forest for the hyenas to
scavenge on or snuffed with a tobacco
concoction or the poisonous desert
rose until they die. Some children are
also tethered on spiky scrubs, abandoned
in the bush or left in the goats’
pens. It is mothers who perform the
killing. Men issue orders.
Saddest picture
“During raids, the disabled children
are left in the manyatta as the rest
take off. It is the most inhuman treatment
you can ever imagine. A year
ago, in one village there was a raid
and everyone fled. Two disabled children
were left. They died. That was
the saddest picture I have ever seen
in my life,” says Grace.
Changing Lives 2010 12