Daryeel Autism
Thursday March 31, 2022
On Saturday evening, Daryeel Autism (DA) Team initiated an early World Autism Awareness Week event for the Somali Community before the start of Ramadan.
DA's angle in World Autism Awareness Week is to encourage disabled children's parents to come forward and SHINE THE LIGHT on disability to break the stigma barrier; often we think that the biggest barrier is language but for Somali parents the cultural barrier is the greatest obstacle.
DA motivated the community to SHINE THE LIGHT on disability at a dinner event where high calibre speakers with disability challenged the community with inspirational accounts of their own life experiences breaking these cultural barriers: Abdi Omar in London, renowned motivational speaker, and Hamda Ahmed, a businesswoman from Leicester.
Both have cerebral palsy and speak through use of computertechnology: their achievements in overcoming their challenges to live amazingly effective lives rightly challenged the Somali community: many eyes were wet with tears.
Otherpowerful testimonies at the SHINE THE LIGHT event of breaking barriers of disability were strong mothers of disabled children included FadumaFarah, a London businesswoman with some paralysis from spinal cord injury from delayed diagnosis of meningitis.
DaryeelAutism, with the strapline "EDUCATE, EMPOWER AND EMBRACE" , motivated the local Somali community to host and provide traditional food for the event. All proceeds are part of a global fund raising initiativeto raise funds for a Special Schools in Hargeisa UBAD GARGAAR; the highest single donor was from the USA with $1000 followed by Canada with $800. But the DA insist that “UK Somalis will beat them in numbers and hopefully, we help the school to buy 2 buses for the children from families who cannot pay for education to reach this special school.”
Autism Awareness week continues
Yesterday Daryeel Autism (DA) hosted an online lecture (Webinar and Live Facebook) "Conversation with Dylan Mathieson-Dodd About Living With Autism". Dylan will soon launch his own business dedicated to helping people on the spectrum tackle stigma in employability. Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when he was 11 and having bounced around multiple families, Dylan was eventually adopted by an aunt and uncle. He has spent the last 8 years working with parents, teachers and people diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, including working with NHS and as a school governor