MICHELLE OBAMA NAMES COADY GRAD MARIA OMARE as VISIONARY TO WATCH “Today, The Action Foundation is not only an institution that’s closing the education gap for children with disabilities, it’s a safe haven for young women to explore their truest passions and be their best selves.” Michelle Obama A British online magazine and former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama have recognized a 2015 Coady Institute graduate. In August, Obama nominated Maria Omare as one of Red magazine’s The Next 25: 25 visionaries to watch. Maria took part in Coady’s Global Change Leaders program and is founder of The Action Foundation. The foundation helps build inclusive and resilient communities for children, women, and girls with disabilities in Kenya. “The Action Foundation has been a refuge for kids with disabilities to learn, grow, and explore their interests for over a decade,” Obama wrote in the Red article. “Today, The Action Foundation is not only an institution that’s closing the education gap for children with disabilities, it’s a safe haven for young women to explore their truest passions and be their best selves.”
The Action Foundation Maria says she founded The Action Foundation in 2009 as a way to support children with disabilities and their families in her own community by providing a space for them to go to learn and work. “A lot of families with children who have a disability are largely isolated because of stigmas, negative social norms, and attitudes,” Maria says. “So if we weren’t here, a lot of them would
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still be at home, probably going through really challenging mental health issues. Now the kids have a chance to access basic health and education opportunities.” Over the past 14 years the organization has expanded its efforts and her learnings from Coady Institute have helped. The Action Foundation also outgrew the initial centre they were operating. Using an asset-based, community-led development approach, Maria says the foundation mapped out assets within the community to reestablish another center. “The space is truly inclusive and mirroring the support that we wanted to offer the community,” she says. “We realized the community has the power to bring about the change that they want to see. That’s something that helped me navigate through that period.” The community held fundraisers and parents of the children with disabilities organized themselves to contribute what they could. Local businesses also began to support the effort and when surrounding communities saw what was happening support grew. She says a new threestory building became a source of hope and light to hundreds of people in the community, providing employment to at least a dozen community members. “The pillar of how this building was able to come to life was through small contributions from the people who we are currently directly working
