Project Beneficiary

Deaf Students attending the Institute

Project Start

Jun2016 – Jun 2017

Objective

To undertake literacy support, economic empowerment and facilities improvement project.

Scope

  1. Potable Water
  2. Facility Improvement – Dormitories, Dining and Tuition Block
  3. Drip Irrigation
  4. Text and Curriculum Books Support

Background

The Deaf Youth need special training so as to integrate them into economic activities and provide them with self supporting skills and trades. One way is through technical tertiary education. The vision is to ensure they are trained, employable, or able to get into self employment. Karen Technical Training Institute for the Deaf is a Public Institution started in 1990. It was an initiative of The Kenya Society for the Deaf Children (K.S.D.C), a first that now serves the East Africa region as well as Somalia, Ethiopia and Mozambique. It is the highest vocational institution for deaf youth to train in Technical Courses (TIVET) in Kenya and the only tertiary technical training outlet for deaf students.

The existing tuition block at the Karen Technical Training Institute for the Deaf, lacks windows, doors, safety rails on the upper floors and stairs and plastering on the walls/ floors. This makes the tuition rooms windy, cold and dusty. In addition, the upper level corridor and stair case has no protective railing (see attached photos) – a complete safety hazard.

Currently the institute has 150 students, staggered into 4 different courses and each course has students in 3 different years. This complex iteration share fewer than 10 tuition rooms, which is the bear minimum they need to run effective tuitions. The proposed project seeks to ensure that the tuition block at the Institute is safe and meets health and occupation standards, and in that way increase the institute’s tuition capacity by making 6 more tuition rooms usable.
The same can be said about the deplorable state of the dormitories and dining hall which have leaking roofs, no potable water, broken windows.

In addition, because of the inadequate Government funding, the institute needs to find ways to supplement their income and Rotary Club of Karen will finance a drip irrigation project as the start of a longer term food sustenance and income generating initiative. So far Rotary Club of Karen have rehabilitated the borehole, though the generous in-kind donation of Davis Shirtliff ltd. Rotary will improve the piping to the facilities and connect the same water to the drip irrigation facility once completed.