{"id":5439,"date":"2021-04-06T19:39:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T19:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/challenging-social-norms-on-disability\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:45:34","slug":"challenging-social-norms-on-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmtraining.org\/fr\/challenging-social-norms-on-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Social Norms on Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Content warning: mention of sexual abuse and violence against children and adults with disabilities)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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Sarah\u2019s Question: Can you tell us a bit about Kupenda\u2019s work?<\/h3>\n

Cynthia\u2019s Answer<\/strong>: Kupenda\u2019s mission is to transform harmful beliefs connected to disability to those that improve lives. So many people around the world, especially in low-income countries, hold negative beliefs about disability\u2014things like [thinking] disability is from curses or witchcraft, or making deals with genies. That creates more discrimination, abuse, and so on for families affected by disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Listen to more about Kupenda’s work.<\/a> (4:03)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t

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Q: What is your role at Kupenda?<\/h3>\n

A<\/strong>: My role is Executive Director and Founder. It morphs over time. At the beginning, I was often the one leading workshops and things on the ground. I would play my guitar and share my own personal story.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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I was born without my left hand. And even when I was born, here in the United States, my dad actually wanted to take me to a faith healer, because he thought that maybe God could sprout me a hand. He meant well… My family was very supportive of me [trying] to be and do anything that I wanted to do. When I was in Kenya doing my research in wildlife biology\u2014which is what my actual education is\u2014I found a school that had just started for children with disabilities. I met the person who started it, who is now my co-founder and director in Kenya, Leonard Mbonani. He\u2019s a special needs teacher, and he introduced me to fifteen children with disabilities that were basically meeting in a storage shed at a mainstream school. They had a variety of disabilities, mostly deafness or cerebral palsy, with a few that had some physical challenges. And I got some friends and families to pay for their school fees twenty years ago. But now, based on where we\u2019ve partnered with other organizations and our methodology of advocacy, we were actually able to support 74,000 people with disabilities just last year.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Listen to more of Cynthia’s story<\/h3>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t
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