Who doesn’t love looking nice, No one I guess, here at L’Arche Kenya we also love looking nice and feeling good about ourselves, nothing gives us much joy as our core members looking their best so we put effort in supporting them look beautiful and boost their self confidence. This reminds me of one time when it was time to re do our female core members hair in Betania, Gathoni a person living with down syndrome has one of the most beautiful hair and she loves playing around it, changing the plaiting style from time to time, the last plaiting is wearing off and it’s time to do it again. Betania home has two female support workers and they each have a different idea of the new style and each is convinced that what they are thinking of would look best with Gathoni, they can’t seem to agree  as each is convinced of their own idea, to solve the disagreement they chose to present Gathoni with both options so that she can choose the one she loves most, after being presented with the two options Gathoni softly replies “ I don’t want to plait my hair, I want to cut my hair and dye it white” the two assistants look puzzled none of them expected that.

This simple scenario was an eye opener to me  and even to the society, the number of times we make decisions for/on behalf of people living with intellectual disabilities without their involvement, some even made on their interest and with the best intentions, but if we do not include/involve the people in the decision we risk making the wrong decisions thinking it’s the best.

Our invitation to the Government, Policy makers, Institutions, Guardians, support workers and the society at large is to build an inclusive society where persons living with intellectual disability have a say in policies and decisions that affect them and their daily lives.     #INCLUSION!