Five minutes with...VSO Jitolee volunteer Úna Higgins
To many Maasai people, disabilities are a curse from God. VSO volunteer Úna Higgins is based in Kajiado, in rural Kenya. She’s working to change that attitude by helping more than 20 disabled Maasai boys fulfill their potential. Here she discusses the difficulties she faced and the progress she’s made.
Tell us about your work
I’m a Children’s Rights Coach at the Primary Boys Boarding School in Kajiado. There are over 20 children with disabilities living within the compound of 400 boys. The majority of the children with disabilities have physical difficulties, and a handful have visual impairments. Working with ‘my boys’ has been a wonderful experience- they’re all full of life and confidence.
How have they progressed?
Many are at the top of their class, and have a fantastic grasp of English. That’s made my job much easier – I’ve gotten through my work plan in half the time I thought I would. That means a little more work for me, but it was great to push them harder with various difficult activities, and introduce them to concepts they had never come across before. In fact the club has progressed so rapidly that the boys no longer need my help, which was something I had hoped to achieve only at the end of the year.
What have you done to ensure your work endures when you leave?
The boys have now elected a five-member committee, which attended the three-day Children with Disabilities National Conference in Nairobi. They’re now preparing club activities and training the other boys in everything they learned during those three days.
Have you faced any major difficulties?
My first day was possibly the worst thing I’ve had to deal with in Kajiado.
My placement manager took me to lunch to welcome me. He ordered a hearty beef stew for us all that, it transpired, was the only thing on the menu. Not wanting to be rude, I set aside 16 years of vegetarianism and ate, telling myself that I would just have to deal with it.
I was coping well until I was introduced to the school’s staff and children an hour later and had to make a run for the bathroom. Clearly not the first impression I had hoped for. Now my Maasai friends laugh at this bizarre lifestyle choice and accept me as a ‘strict vegetarian’ who is simply weird that way!
