By John Kariuki
It’s paramount for persons suffering from audio and visual impairment to be empowered to make them self-reliant in life. These words came from Mr. Richard Mativu, the country director of Sense international.
Sense International is a global charity supporting people with deafblindness in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Peru, Romania, Uganda and Nepal.
Mr Mativu spoke in the side-lines of the first Deafblindness International (DBI) Africa Conference which was held in Nairobi at the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE).
The theme was ‘Deafblind reality in Africa: Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals – opportunities and challenges’.
Richard Mativu Musau has over thirteen years’ experience in the social development sector as an advocate, facilitator, and research consultant, with a special focus on human rights, project management and inclusive development.
Richard holds two Master Degrees: MBA with a specialization in Strategic Management and MA Human Rights with a specialization in Human Rights Monitoring & Promotion. He also has a BA with a double Major in Economics and Sociology.
Richard has done short courses under a fellowship in University of Illinois – Urbana – Champaign as well as International Institute of Social Studies – Den Haag, Netherlands.
Other professional development courses he’s done are Project Management Professional (PMP), Senior Leadership Development Program (SLDP), Auditing of State Corporations, and Finance for Non-Finance Managers among others.