Local Leaders

Cultivating Self-Sufficient Communities: Kupenda Training Course Offers Important Agricultural Skills to Parents and Youth Affected by Disability

by Rebecca Majeau

  • Posted on April 27, 2023

For children with disabilities and their parents, agricultural training provides them with more than just access to nutritional food; it also contributes to their empowerment, independence, and resilience. Across the world, individuals affected by disability have lower levels of employment, higher poverty, and less education; so here at Kupenda, we are reversing those trends by…



Join Kupenda in Supporting Kenyan Communities This Giving Tuesday

by Rebecca Majeau

  • Posted on November 29, 2022

“Karibu” is a Swahili word meaning “welcome.” This was a term I became quite familiar with over the course of my first trip to our innovation center in Kilifi, Kenya, where we have worked to help thousands of children with disabilities access care and support. I didn’t speak the language or fully understand the culture,…



Update on the Health Status of Our Kenyan Director

by Kupenda

As some of you may recall, in 2016, Kupenda’s co-founder and Kenya director, Leonard Mbonani, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma. Although his early years of treatment were successful, he had a severe relapse in late 2021 that kept him out of work for several months. Kupenda’s founder and CEO, Cynthia Bauer, even traveled to Kenya to see him…



What Motivates our Pastors Disability Advocates?

by Jessica Charles Abrams

  • Posted on March 10, 2022

  Last year Kupenda interviewed 50 of the pastors we have trained as advocates for children with disabilities. This was a program evaluation exercise conducted alongside data analyst, Dr. Kathryn Quissell, from the University of Virginia, and implementing partner, Cross International. The pastors’ feedback gave us greater insight into what motivates them to work as…



Three women standing within a circle of listening women

Blessed: Lessons Learned from our Work with Traditional Healers

by Jessica Charles Abrams

  • Posted on March 4, 2021

By, Jessica Charles, Kupenda’s Development Director The first time I sat in a workshop alongside 25 Kenyan traditional healers, I was nervous. I’d heard that these herbalists, soothsayers and witchdoctors were conducting painful traditional healing practices on children with disabilities in their communities — things like skin cutting, exorcisms, and live burials. Some of them…



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