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The Project met the following objectives as established:

Project 7
Thenge-ini Primary School
henge-ini Primary school is located within The Gikanda FCS catchment. It is among this community that the need to have a special learning class for the mentally disabled children was identied. Parents of such children with special needs were forced to take their children to far way schools which could cater to them. It was expensive and the children were distanced from the much needed parental care and attention. The project comprised of rehabilitation of the infrastructure at Tenge-ini Primary School. This involved renovation and equipping of a special class for the physically and mentally disabled children within the catchment area of the cooperative to serve coee farmers who are also subsistence dairy farmers. The project was proposed by the community to alleviate following problems: Unequal access to education for the children with special needs within the community Inappropriate learning environment that did not take into account specic needs of children with special needs Low morale of the teaching sta due to inadequate oce space Low literacy levels in the community hence disadvantage of future coee farmers when making socio-economic and political decisions Assist the mentally and physically challenged pupils to live an independent life and therefore t in the day-to-day activities.

Goal/Objective Improve access to education for children with special needs Improve the overall academic performance of the school but some of the available teachers were taken to special training to enable them eectively handle these children. The proposed initiative is geared towards improving the teaching and the learning environment in the school. Tchibo, in partnership with CMS provided $ 21,515 towards constructing a classroom for the special children and renovating four others that had stalled due to lack of funds. The funds were also used to put up an administration block for the teachers. The project has further seen the special needs children at the school benet from the medical attention of qualied Occupational Therapists. The childrens caregivers and teachers have also been ted on how to handle and manage their dierent conditions with care. Food security has been a major issue to many families in Kenya Rural settings and families with Thengeini Primary school are not exceptional. It was also established that the special needs children suered from cases of malnutrition. The Tchibo-CMS partnership project therefore established a green house that will provide food to the special children. It has the capacity to produce food for commercial purposes, serving as an avenue to ensure income to the special childrens needs. Mrs. Kiune, one of the teachers who is a caretaker for the special needs children observes: We now have a class of our own and this has helped the children to concentrate. The environment is favorable and we now have teaching aids. The head teacher Mr. Thagana also observes that the teachers have the much-deserved working space and the teachers have some working space. Gikanda FCS certication Improved future opportunities for coee farmers

Expected Output More children with special needs have been able to access learning facilities due to the increased capacity of the primary school Improved learning environment of all primary students by providing better class rooms Improved literacy levels in the community placing future coee farmers at advantage when making informed socio-economic and political decisions.

Target Children with special needs/Community Women/ Children/ Community Community

The schools management board heeded to the communitys call and started the special learning class two years ago even without the facilities and a classroom