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In Kenya, more than 3.9 million people experience vision loss, including around 290,000 who are completely blind. Among school-aged children, over 86,000 live with uncorrected visual impairments (VI). For many of these kids, the happiness and benefits of play have long felt out of reach. Despite the clear benefits of physical activity – social connection, confidence and improved health – children with VI are often left out, not for lack of ability but for lack of accessible opportunities. This is largely due to a shortage of adapted equipment, trained teachers and inclusive programming.
Now, Alive and Kicking Kenya is stepping in with an innovative solution-focused approach in support of young people. In partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Education’s Special Needs Education Directorate, they have launched Tucheze Pia (“Let’s Play Too”) – a nationwide initiative to transform sports access for over 4,000 VI children across 84 schools. The message at the heart of the program is simple but powerful: every child deserves the right to play.
What makes Tucheze Pia stand out isn’t just its scale, but the innovation behind it. Alive and Kicking is an Enterprise365 funding recipient of the Olympism365 Innovation Hub – a collaboration between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Beyond Sport and Women Win. With the Innovation Hub’s support and additional funding from Swiss-based ON’s Right to Run social impact initiative, they have bolstered the project and expanded work with VI communities and children.
The program uses specially crafted sound balls and goal balls embedded with bells and rattles that help kids with VI to participate by tracking the ball through auditory cues. These tools are part of a larger ecosystem that includes tactile learning resources, mobility aids and teacher training in adapted sports like goalball and blind football.
“Tucheze Pia will bridge the accessibility gap in sports,” said Martin Barnard, Board Director at Alive and Kicking, during the Nairobi launch event in April. “Thanks to our partners, we’ve been able to improve the design and sound quality of the balls, enabling more VI learners to experience the joy of play.”
The project builds on Alive and Kicking’s existing work, which started with an urgent need to address the shortage of durable, affordable sports balls in underserved communities. The organization not only manufactures hand-stitched balls, creating jobs and training for women and people with disabilities, but also integrates sport into youth health education and teacher training programs.
Beyond the equipment, Tucheze Pia includes Braille learning materials, mobility tools and training workshops for teachers, ensuring sustainability and integration into the national curriculum. Implementation will be led by the Kenya Sports Association for the Visually Impaired (KESAVI). The organization will train teachers in inclusive sports, promote community awareness and oversee equipment distribution across the 84 schools. In addition, the program will develop a Best Practice Manual for inclusive sports, backed by rigorous monitoring and evaluation, with the long-term goal of embedding inclusive play into Kenya’s national education system.
For Alive and Kicking ambassador and Paralympic gold medalist Henry Wanyoike, the initiative is deeply personal: “Having lost my sight, I understand the barriers visually impaired individuals face. Tucheze Pia is a beacon of hope—it breaks down those barriers and opens up a world of possibilities.”
For the first time, thousands of Kenyan children with visual impairments are hearing something new on their school grounds: the bounce of a ball designed just for them and the sound of inclusion in action.
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