Ike Foundation for Autism (IFA) on 14th April, 2022 in Abuja, in commemoration of the World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) embarked on an awareness walk from the Unity Fountain to the Federal Secretariat to raise awareness and advocate for a better living for persons with autism.
The Executive Director, IFA, Mohie Francis Oko while speaking to The Qualitative Magazine (TQM) said IFA was founded basically to carter for children with autism and related disabilities, we use four operational pillars as tool of engagement under the word “HEAL”.
HEALTH which focuses on medical, referral, diagnosis and assessment and this is done effectively in the national hospital,
EDUCATION which focuses on early intervention which is key, we use different effective methodology with emphasis on “ABA” Applied Behavior Analysis, which has to do with behavioral modification for identified cases, functional and learning skills and those that are successful will be mainstreamed into proper educational curricular.
AWARENESS which focuses on awareness creation, the societies understanding of the issue of children with autism is very low which has led to a whole lot of prejudice instead of empathy, misconception and lots of myths as related to autism. They are stigmatized and they are not accommodated in public places.
LEARNING, IFA focuses on research and capacity building, we train stakeholders such as parents, siblings of children affected, teachers, therapists, medical doctors, care givers and the general public, so that they can be able to handle them.
“What we intend to achieve through this walk is to reduce stigmatization, seek support from government, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and private organization to help them in taking proper care of children with autism, we also want to create awareness for the society to know that such children are not associated with any myth rather is a condition and to celebrate the uniqueness of children with autism”.
Mr. Francis said we need government intervention, support to be able to dictate cases early, get expertise, therapist and health care. We need to take the message to the rural communities to enhance their understanding about children with autism, and how they can be supported to make exploit, lastly the society needs to accept this people, say no to discrimination and stigmatization, children with autism are humans and therefore have rights.
Hajia Rafia Salami, mother to Ahmed Salami, a child with autism said that mothers with autistic children should not give up on their children, they should be handled with care and celebrate every success because taking care of children with autism needs consistence and persistence to succeed. She said the society should not discriminate against children with autism and support the parents, engage in community awareness and reduce stigmatization.
