Disabled people facing prejudice in Kenya have started their own businesses with micro loans from a Welsh not-for-profit organisation.
Trevor Palmer founded ResponsABLE Assistance in Newport after seeing how disabled people were affected by the 2004 Thailand tsunami.
The charity’s Fursa initiative provides loans between £3.45 and £34.50, as well as solar-powered mobile phones.
Trevor, who has multiple sclerosis, said there were people across the globe “not able to live or be included”.
Nzembi Mosukulu, from Kenya, is unable to use her legs, but has never had a formal diagnosis.
Like other disabled people around the world, she has faced hardship and sometimes struggles to get food and water.
“Whenever the drought comes, we people with disabilities experience bigger challenges,” she said. “We don’t have food and our neighbours don’t have food, so no-one can help each other.”
However, she has received help from Wales and now has a new hand bike which she uses to deliver water in her drought-prone area.
The money she makes from her business “has helped me to buy food and educate my children,” she said.
Francis Mutuku, chairman of Kibwezi Fursa scheme, said before the support, people “did not see themselves as capable of carrying out any individual business”.
But – along with the loans – they were given business training which he said gave them confidence and “raised their self esteem”.
The World Health Organization estimates there are 1.3 billion disabled people in the world, 16% of the population, and believes that figure is growing.
A study published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal found almost a third of disabled children and teenagers had experienced violence, with children in less affluent areas especially vulnerable.
Nzembi is one of hundreds of disabled people who have benefited from the work of Trevor’s organisation, which has received funds from the Welsh government.
Trevor said he was appalled at how disabled people were treated in some parts of the world, especially in disaster zones and emergencies.
He was caught up in a terrorist attack in Ethiopia and saw how disabled people were treated in hospital in the aftermath.
He said: “I was in Addis Ababa and unfortunately I was involved in a terrorist incident, I got blown up.
“Trevor said he saw people “shoved into corners and on floors and not treated the same as people who could voice their complaints”.
He added: “We take things so much for granted here, we take it for granted that we receive certain benefits, that we receive inclusion in life, which is our right, which is good.
“But those things just don’t exist and people don’t realise there are people in other parts of the world who don’t have anything, and they’re not able to live or be included.”
ResponsABLE Assistance has now been given permission to dig foundations for a solar-powered well in Makueni County to allow people access to clean drinking water.
Trevor believes having a disability anywhere in the world is not a barrier if you have the support from those around you, and those a little further afield.
Source: BBC