Mellen Marucha: “Our starting point must be ensuring parents understand and embrace inclusive education”

February 2025

Mellen Kemunto Marucha is the senior programme coordinator at Sense International in Kenya – an organisation dedicated to working with and for people with complex and multiple disabilities to ensure they have the right to live, learn and thrive in an inclusive society.

Sense International was a partner in our project in Kenya, which focused on gathering evidence about how to provide inclusive and affordable early years education in mainstream schools in Homabay in western Kenya, and Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.


Mellen’s story

“Children’s early years are an essential time in their growth and development. Through our work at Sense International, Kenya, we focus on reaching children with complex disabilities early to ensure they can get the best start in life, walk with them into inclusive education, and later into vocational training and livelihoods. This life cycle approach ensures that they can go on to achieve their full potential.

“In the Inclusive Futures project in Homabay, we worked with government-run Education Assessment and Resource Centres to identify and assess 45 learners with disabilities who qualified to receive home-based education.

“We then recruited learner support assistants to teach the children at home. We wanted the support assistants to be familiar with the learners they were working with, so we recruited people from the same communities and trained them on how to assist learners with complex disabilities.”

From home-based learning into mainstream education

“Learners with complex disabilities often experience delayed milestones and require specific therapeutic interventions. To address this, we worked with hospitals in Homabay and Mbita in western Kenya where the learners received physiotherapy and occupational therapy. This helped the learners to gain important mobility and sensory skills to help them better engage with the learning process.

“Our goal was always for the home-based learners to at one point transit to school. However, mainstream schools often lack the capacity or expertise to support learners with complex disabilities. To address this, we collaborated with project schools, which had already been sensitised in inclusive education by Sightsavers, to help them prepare to accept and admit the learners. Simply placing a learner with complex disabilities in a mainstream classroom without guided support is ineffective. Therefore, we ensured that the children who transitioned into school would have the help of support assistants.

“All learners with disabilities are given individualized education plans, where teachers record quarterly or monthly milestones. However, we discovered this approach wasn’t sufficient for children with complex disabilities. These learners need a daily record book to capture the daily, small but important achievements, such as learners being able to hold a spoon and put food in their mouths.”

Mellen is sitting in a black office chair against a plain background. She is wearing glasses and a patterned dress. She is smiling at the camera.

Mellen Marucha

Senior programme coordinator, Sense International, Kenya

Pauline, who has complex disabilities, is wearing a brown school uniform. She is sat next to a classmate without disabilities, who is also wearing a brown school uniform.
Pauline at school in Homabay, in western Kenya.

Seeing children with complex disabilities thrive

“When I reflect on the success of the project – I think about Pauline, a 7-year-old girl from Homabay. She has physical and intellectual disabilities, and mild cerebral palsy. From an early age, she struggled to walk or grasp even the simplest of objects. Her speech was difficult to understand and she relied entirely on her family for support, including with eating.

“When we identified Pauline through our community outreach, we assigned her a learner support assistant to guide her through home-based education. The support assistant noticed Pauline’s potential and encouraged her parents to take her to hospital for occupational therapy.

“In addition to the therapy, Pauline’s learner support assistant and parents continued to encourage her to do activities at home to strengthen her muscles and improve her coordination. Week-by-week, small, yet significant improvements were visible. She started to grasp objects something she was previously unable to do due to weak fingers – this was a remarkable milestone in her progress!”

“As Pauline progressed, we provided her with a wheelchair, which significantly increased her independence. Over time, her mobility has improved so much that she no longer needs a wheelchair and has transitioned into using a walking frame instead. The greatest reward has been successfully referring Pauline to a nearby mainstream primary school, where she is now learning alongside her peers.”

Driving widespread change

“To give more children like Pauline the chance to learn and thrive, we have to shift the mindsets of policymakers, governments, parents, teachers and everybody else involved in education. Many parents prefer enrolling their children with disabilities to special needs schools, believing that teachers in mainstream schools aren’t well trained to meet their children’s individual needs.

“Our starting point must be changing this perception – ensuring that parents understand and embrace inclusive education. When they confidently enrol their children in inclusive schools, they should feel assured that their children will receive quality care, support, and education.”