Kenya


When we started working in Kenya in 2014, very little was being done for people with disabilities. The lack of local knowledge and resources meant that very few people had access to the wheelchairs they badly needed, and the absence of rehabilitation services meant that even people who could have had a chance at mobility were left immobile and isolated within their communities.

There was also a serious lack of job opportunities for wheelchair users, in part due to the stigma surrounding disability in this area.

In 2018, we opened our first-ever Wheelchair Assembly and Repair Centre in Nanyuki, Kenya after working with our partner United Disabled Persons of Laikipia successfully for over five years. In just two years, our centre has become the leading wheelchair provider in Kenya. Today, we have a growing waiting list of 2000 adults and 900 children in need of a wheelchair, and we receive new requests every day.

By receiving chairs unassembled and assembling them locally, we are able to save considerable costs on shipping into Kenya and enable our product offering to grow and to adapt to changing needs and innovations in wheelchairs. The money we save allows us to pay the salaries of our 17 local staff members. Six of our full-time employees are wheelchair users themselves and our past beneficiaries, whose example helps our recipients adapt to their new chair and reduces the stigma attached to disability in the community.

About Kenya
Population47,615,739
% living below poverty line43.4
Our work
Year started working2014
Number of distributions25
Lives impacted

This number is based on UCP Wheels for Humanity’s multiplier, which takes the birth rate in each country and estimates that one wheelchair impacts the beneficiaries life in full, 0.75% of his or her primary caregiver’s life and 0.25% of the surrounding family members’ (siblings) lives.

20,745
Number of chairs distributed7,655
Rehabilitation Centre1
Wheelchair Assembly line1

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Tel: +44(0)207 581 3680

info@walkaboutfoundation.org

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UK Registered Charity 1140850

US Registered 501(c) (3): 37-1582823