Young Ambassadors in Kenya

Our fantastic Young Ambassadors Samina Begum and Jessica Hardy, from Loughborough, have just arrived in Kenya on a fact-finding mission with Deaf Child Worldwide and the Global Campaign for Education UK (GCE UK) to investigate progress in getting every child into school.

Jessica and Samina won a national competition, supported by the NUT, to be the 2016 Young Ambassadors for the Send My Friend to School campaign and the exciting trip to Kenya is the start of their year-long role in which they will work to raise awareness and help to ensure that no child is forgotten in receiving their right to education.

In Kenya, they will meet with campaigners, charity workers, policy makers, teachers and community workers trained to support deaf children to get an education. Jessica and Samina will also have the chance to meet deaf children who have been denied the chance to go to school. They will be able to see first-hand how this traps these children in poverty and learn about the barriers to getting them a quality education.

Samina & Jessica will spend time in the capital of Nairobi where they will visit deaf units in schools supported by Deaf Child Worldwide, which offer an enabling learning environment with specialist and intensive support available to increase attainment levels. They will also travel 500km east of Nairobi to the rural area of Kwale. Deaf units are rare in rural areas, where instead children go to residential schools for the deaf given the long distances between school and home. The Young Ambassadors will see how Deaf Child Worldwide supports deaf children and the different challenges they face in accessing education in rural and urban areas.

Photo: Jess and Samina have had a fantastic day visiting Nairobi schools supported by Deaf Child Worldwide.