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National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) has today received a donation of 1 million Kenya shilling and a motor vehicle from Helen Mary Margaret McGowan, a US-based disability champion.
McGowan passed on in November 2021 and in her will, she had pledged to donate to NCPD, a donation which was today handed by her executrices led by Ms. Shivora Tavares at the council headquarters in Nairobi.
While receiving the donation, NCPWD Executive Director Mr. Harun Hassan commended the Council for services rendered to Helen during her lifetime and called for more people with philanthropic hearts to emulate her.
Mr. Hassan thanked the executors of the will for seeing Helen’s wishes come to pass. He cited that the donation coming from a person with a disability goes a long way in shattering the myth that persons with disabilities are only recipients of help and not givers
The Sh1 million donation will establish an educational scholarship in her name: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗻 𝗠𝗰𝗚𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽. Selection criteria will be put in place to select the first five students with disabilities who will benefit starting next January as they join Form 1.
We join the friends of Ms. McGowen in calling for more well-wishers to contribute to the scholarship to reach as many students with disabilities as possible.
The vehicle will serve at the Council’s offices and be used as a model of disability-friendly vehicle designs.
Helen was a person with a disability who was involved in promoting disability inclusion. She worked for a number of international organizations including the included Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO} in Rome and the UN World Food Programme (WFP} in Kenya.
While at WFP she did a podcast in the Understanding Disability series, Beyond Labels, outlining her experience while working with WFP as a person with a disability.
