WORLD AUTISM DAY: LEAH, HOPELESS AND HAPPY
If you haven’t seen a truly hopeless situation, I tell you what, you can find a few at an AUTISM center. Yet in the midst of this hopeless situation, a young autistic girl, by name Leah was conspicuously high-spirited, whether voluntarily or as a result of the intellectual derailment, I can’t tell but I know she was happy and yet hopeless.
Afflicted from the age of 6, a man remains a living corpse at the age of 67. For 61 years he’s not aware of his identity and he continues to exist as a senseless 2 year old boy. And then another woman, sapped of life and wellness. I bet, you won’t believe she’s 50 but she exists in a 5 year old paper-weight skeleton-like body.
As part of our social service, the Yes We Are Winning team made a visit to Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care & Treatment Home School, a government owned autistic centre in Lagos. Established in 1960, by Late Mrs. Modupe Cole, it has since 1980 been adopted and funded by the government, with supports and donations from NGOs, families and individuals.
Until I surfed the Internet to search for autism center in Lagos, I didn’t know about this home, so does many of my team members, and I believe many Lagosians do not know as well. Housing over 300 children and adults with over 150 day students, all categorized as totally dependent, trainable and educable, the school facility is definitely not sufficient to cater for this indigents. The Government and NGOs certainly need to do more in terms of support and creating awareness.
YWAW team with Some of the Autistic children
What you should know about Autism
1. World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day on 2 April every year, encouraging Member States of the United Nations to take measures to raise awareness about people with autism throughout the world. http://www.un.org/en/events/autismday/
2. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution “62/139. World Autism Awareness Day”, passed in council on 1 November 2007, and adopted on 18 December 2007. It was proposed by the United Nations representative from Qatar.
3. World Autism Day is one of only four official health-specific UN Days.[5] The day itself brings individual autism organizations together all around the world to aid in things like research, diagnoses, treatment, and overall acceptance for those with this neurological variance.
4. World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) aims to put a spotlight on the hurdles that people with autism – and others living with autism – face every day. As a growing global health issue owing to its increasing exposure in the press and common knowledge, autism is an issue that is only gaining more understanding – and WAAD activities are planned every year to further increase and develop world knowledge of children and adults who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
5. World Autism Awareness Day goes one step further to celebrate the unique talents of those with autism, while putting a huge focus on the warm embrace and welcome that these skills deserve through community events around the globe. Gladly, some of the disabled children have been trained on skills acquisitions, and they made lovely beads, and beautiful art work.
The Government needs to do more in terms of funding and providing quality educational facilities, training equipments and professional care givers. Also, more awareness need to be created to enable more people to donate to the school.
Trust me, some situations look very hopeless, and looking at these intellectual impaired people, you will but thank God for who you where you. Some of them have been in this deplorable state for over for as much as 60 years and they can only wait for their death, that is if they even know if they are living.
If you are normal, and able, and have a sound reasoning capacity, you should be grateful even if you have don’t know where the next mean will come from. There’s certainly no hopeless situation with God because there is no impossibility with Him.
You should be thankful for the little things, and do render help to those who are needy. Everyone is precious in God’s sight, whether able or disable. Therefore, show some love to all men. You are winning! Yes, we are winning!
http://www.un.org/en/events/autismday/
https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-autism-awareness-day-2018/
For more read
https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/doctor.ndtv.com/living-healthy/world-autism-awareness-day-2018-focuses-on-empowering-women-and-girls-with-autism-1831663%3famp=1