APRIL 2ND: WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY

On World Autism Awareness Day, we speak out against discrimination, celebrate the diversity of our global community and strengthen our commitment to inclusion for people with autism.” – Antonio Guterres, United Nations

Why is Autism Awareness day every important?

I gave it a quick thought. Why should we have a particular day meant for Autism awareness? Shouldn’t it be a daily basis where we advocate for Autism acceptance and inclusion?

But it doesn’t mean that I don’t love the great day! I always love forward to this day because it’s a day where EVERYONE shows their support and love.

This month, I plan to celebrate by releasing my first Autism fiction novel “All For my Odd beautiful boy”. It’s a story about a young mother and how she battles with household issues- her emotionally abusive husband, her meddling mother-in-law and also her son, who happens to be cursed’ or possessed with the devil.

Demonic possession has been a misconception of Autism for a long while and it's mostly in Africa where this stereotype is popular. Even as the world is striving for inclusion and awareness, there are still some parts in the world, especially Nigeria where autism is treated as a disease.

It's easy for us in the city to have the proper knowledge about it, but for people in the rural areas, they have nothing as a resource. No stable internet connection, no educative books and the healthcare professionals are not of assistance either.

We are so lucky to have education.

My new book talks about Autism misconceptions, the dangers of it. More importantly, it talks about love- a unique motherly love. Mothers who have special needs children go through a lot- and I would always have respect for my mother and how she manages to take control of the Odunuyi home.

I cannot wait to share this project with you on the 13^th of this month. I also have a lot of activities lined up for this month, with Instagram live shows.

I’m so excited!

In conclusion, it should be our duty to raise awareness, improve the lives of persons diagnosed with autism and also to strive for awareness in the health care sector. We should turn stigma and isolation into awareness and acceptance. We also need to push for policies that would help in Autism acceptance and awareness.

I hope this month and everyday, we shed light on autism and everything that concerns it. I also hope that we love and appreciate children/ individuals who have Autism.

They are amazing.

Take care!

Comments

The Change

HOW I DEALT WITH THE NEWS. Hiiiiiii. Let me just say my awesome friends pushed me to doing this and I love them❤️ So I have been so fortunate to know the word “Autism and everything it entails. I have a brother of 17 years who is autistic and if you knew me well, you would know I mention Tobi like a million times a day, when referring to anything. He's just in my mind everytime, gosh. Is it weird that I don’t remember my childhood? Maybe, But I think it’s so weird that I don’t understand how it happened, why it keeps happening to children, but I can tell that they are beautiful in every way and when my brother became autistic, was he meant to be this or was cursed? As a Nigerian, you question things like this and search for spiritual help. I never knew of the situation till I was 14. When I was younger, I was ignorant. I didn’t know what was wrong with my brother. I was even too self-absorbed at that age or just busy looking for trouble. I didn’t know why he didn’t speak or w...

A PERSONAL STORY ON CEREBRAL PALSY: CAN REALLY GOD TAKE AWAY DISABILITIES?

Did I always know better? No. So, I will tell you something that happened in Secondary School ten years ago. There was this girl that had Cerebral Palsy . But I didn’t know that was it. I always thought that she had a curse or possession. Image from Very Well Health site I did not even know about Cerebral Palsy until I got out of high school. I randomly remembered her last year and felt so terrible. This girl was subjected to mockery, ridicule, and so much stress in a boarding school by her teachers, mates, and seniors. I couldn’t even possibly imagine how she felt. She had to make it to class every day without support and learn like others. There was no form of special education in the school. See Last Month's post: Reservations from a love struck neurotypical sibling I cannot blame her parents, even if it’s questioning to let your child come to that kind of environment. They may not have known about her problem. If they weren't aware she was differ...

Helllooooooo!

PARENTS Last time I wrote about how I handled the news of my brother being on the spectrum, possibly telling the other siblings who have special siblings that everything will be okay if they just understand their siblings and try their best to create time for them and appreciate their existence. So today is for the parents and also siblings though. I’m not a parent but I’m at that age to learn things, to accept them. I can tell that I’m probably going to be an extra and dramatic mother🤷 If you have a parent in your life or a parental figure in your life that actually loves you and does everything to make you happy, you’re so lucky. Trust me that they might not show you love the way you want it, but they do. I follow this Instagram platform for Autism parents and the way they talk about them is amazing. There are like super heroes. You can imagine how hard parenting is. How you have to sacrifice your own need for a person. I don’t know how I would handle it but parenthood is someth...

AN INCLUSIVE KIND WORLD

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