 Good day, my lovely listeners! You are listening to the Forty Auty podcast. Tune in every week to explore inspiring stories and insightful information that dive headfirst into the world of autism and mental health. With all those tantalising tongue twisters out of the way, let's get into the show. Good day and welcome back to the Forty Auty podcast, the Autism and Mental Health podcast. How are you guys doing today? I am feeling pretty chipper today. I've been having quite a hard week in terms of mental health as it usually goes, but things seem to be doing quite well at the moment. Before we get into this episode, I do want to do a little bit of a pre-cursor, a little bit of a disclaimer that we are going to be talking about something that is currently happening, something that's perhaps quite emotional for people, or perhaps a little bit too topical, if you can say that. But we're going to be talking about the Ukrainian war, but we're not going to be talking about it in general, or the way that most of the stories are covered, we're going to be talking about it specifically in the context of autism. So, today I have my very lovely guest, Aaron, who's going to be giving us some updates on the work that he's been doing, as well as some of the cool projects that he's currently working on. How are you doing today, Aaron? I'm very good. How are you, Thomas? Thank you for having me. It's a very good day. No, of course. Of course. I'm not too bad today. I'm feeling quite well. I'm currently having to do a lot of physio at the moment, which is not the most fun thing to do. I was sitting aside a couple of hours every day just to torture your leg. I recently had an ACL reconstruction surgery, and I had two of my ligaments replaced and some cartilage removed and stuff. Having to do a lot of physio actually from day one, so as soon as I got on my surgery, they got me up and had to do a bunch of exercises, and it's a very overloading day, but it's passed and I'm feeling quite strong when it went up to about 70 kilos on the box squat. So it's improvements are rolling in. Would you like to tell everybody a little bit about the work that you're doing as far as the military museum and how you got into it? What I do, just a little bit about what I do, I serve as the military specialist for Carleton County that's in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada. I am owner-operator of Balmow Woodworks where I build military models from scratch. I'm a military historian for the area, and I'm working on building a military museum. I'm an autistic advocate. I have autism myself, and there has been what some of the work that I do. I'm a scratch military modeler. I'm a woodworker, but I'm also a strong autism advocate. I was diagnosed with autism at age of three. Asperger's again at age of three, autism at age of three. Oh my lord. That's very rare. Catching on that early. Yeah, and then Asperger's at the age of 12, so it was a really interesting life. I mean, it has been difficult going up in a small town, but also dealing with people that don't understand and are in onward, and my journey through mental health certainly has been an awakening over the last few years, realizing that I can't just put myself out there, and out there, and out there, and take more and more mental energy without experiencing definitely issues, and also being in a potentially hostile, not hostile environment, but you know what I mean, like a toxic environment. So certain things, and yeah. Stressful, not very inclusive, that kind of thing. So yeah, I think it's quite interesting that you're diagnosed at the age of three, because if it's not rude for me to ask, how old are you? So I am 33. I am right now, I've always lived here, I live on the farm outside of Woodstock near Brunswick, and I've lived here all my life. My shop at Bowma Woodworks, I'm building the military museum for the community of Carleton County right next to it. So I mean, basically building on, we own about, you know, 77, 78 acres land, so a good amount of land out in the country, and then I've got my work and then I've got my autism work as well, as I was Vice Chair of the Oversight Panel for helping develop the National Autism Strategy, but I've been involved with projects overall before this as well, the York University Autism Mental Health Project. The world, well, at least one of the first or if not the first Autism Mental Health Guide for Autistic people developed by York University, yes, that is in essence where things have gone and have been what we've been working on, what I've been working on in the last many years, so. It sounds like you're doing quite a lot of active work in the community. Yeah, absolutely. We're trying to see consistent changes within the first world countries as far as, you know, in Canada, the US, you know, we're now struggling with autism acceptance and trying to push that forward, right? We're trying to push that ahead, whereas autism, you know, awareness is old, not a date. It's, people are aware, but they don't know enough about what it is still, even though there's over, you know, you said there's over 70 million of us, there could be up to 180 million of us worldwide. We statistically setting it's quite possible. I mean, when you have a population of nearly, well, now over 8 billion, I think it's what it was the last time I checked. Yeah, with my involvement with stuff, I've also been involved in smaller project, the Connect Group, which was a need assessment survey for autistics in the Maritimes. That was, and that's still an ongoing, actually we're creating another section of that. So it's an ongoing project. Being in a, the Maritimes in Canada are more, largely more rural, but they're, they don't have as many people, but they're kind of like, it's Eastern Canada and over 70 to 80% of us are underemployed or unemployed. It's just, that's been very current. It's quite similar in terms of like the UK, even I think in most places, the rates of unemployment are really, really, really tough at the moment. What I want to ask is like, because obviously you've been doing all this great work within the communities and making some systemic, or trying to contribute towards a systemic change. In terms of like the military side of things, how did you first sort of get into it or how did you first, why do you think it's been such a, a large part of your life up until this point? Well, that is something that I honestly, for me, it's been, I started getting into like naval warfare and then air warfare, and then, you know, ground the ground operations. When I was really young, like it started grade seven and going into grade eight and then going into onward, it just grew from there. And then I got to, you know, for different stuff. I even got to meet more, you know, got to meet politicians of different ranks. And then finally got to, you know, I've been able to get involved in politics with the Conservative Party of Canada and Conservative Party of New Brunswick as I am today and made connections there and then grew on kind of the work I've been doing. And so I do a lot of war history presentations at the schools, been doing that for years, like First World War, Second World War, equipment, Cold War, up to modern. And what about the, the, the museum that you're currently working on? Like, because I know, I know you've been talking about sort of like woodwork and sort of creating rep, like models and stuff like that. Like what kind of, what kind of scale are we talking about? Like, is it like these massive life size replicas or is it like sort of different, different models and stuff that you can display in like cases? So a lot of my models, like I've been building life size rifle models, like different rifles, like from either war periods or modern or modern times, you know, different, you know, weapon systems that are, you know, life size sniper rifles, different, or different rifles that have been used in different conflicts for numerous years. And then I've, since then, I've also built, started building tank, small, like one to one 30 size, like, you know, a foot to two foot long, scale model, model tanks, howitzers, artillery pieces, aircraft, fighters, you know, also stuff like, say, anywhere from the Spitfire, World War II Spitfire, Mark I to all the way to, you know, first World War F1 Camel, that's one, one of the ones I just recently built. And then I've got stuff, yeah, and then all, and then also some ships as well, warships I built a model for somebody as a commission of the HMCS Bonaventure, which was our last in-service aircraft carrier for the Royal Canadian Navy. And that was, they were decommissioned and the last one decommissioned, the Bonaventure was 1970s. And so I had built that and I'm planning on building more definitely. So I really branched out, I've even built model grenades to, yeah, different. Yeah. So it's, and then I started, yeah. Honestly, like for me, my range of skills has always been like, fairly limited. And one of the areas that I always used to struggle in was to do with history. And I just have a really bad recall for dates and for like, like plotting things on a timeline. So I've never really, apart from maybe reading some, some books on like, orders and history and stuff, like even, even then, to be honest, if, if I'm reading something and I'm learning about something, I don't tend to remember who it was or when it happens and where it was. So I, I'm, I'm absolutely rubbish with that. And I've, I've also not really had no experience in terms of like woodwork or like, sort of crafts that, that use your hands and like, um, I think the, the, the one thing that I have ever created was in like a designing technology session at secondary school where I made this weird robot lady book where you pull, there's like a coat hanger. And when you put your coat on it, the arms went up. Very, very, very creed. And, um, Hey, I mean, everybody's got skills. Yeah. Everybody's got skills. You know, you're, uh, your skills and other things, people are skilled in some things, some people are skilled in other things. And it's like every autistic person is different with different gifts and different abilities. And then, and, um, I started building furniture too, which is great because then I started making even more money, um, is a tapping into a big market, right? So which is great. Like tables and shelving and, yeah, that's really, it's really, really cool. Um, I feel like our skills are very, um, different from, from one another's, but we do have one common interest that, um, I think we chatted about a little bit, uh, when we did our pre-charts of like the, before, before we sat down to do this podcast, we had a bit of a chat. And, um, you're telling me about your experience with martial arts and I, well, I guess I, would you be able to tell us a little bit about that? So my experience of martial arts, um, it's really interesting because I've, uh, just, uh, the anniversary of my, in a sense, my 10th year of being involved in Kung Fu and, um, martial arts, I do anything, uh, I've done, uh, numerous types. Uh, I've done Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I did that for four years and then, uh, the club, it's kind of going different ways. So, I mean, I did it for four years and then, so, but then I started Kung Fu the same year, which was in 2012. Did that for, uh, I've been doing that for over 10 years now. And, uh, uh, my brown, brown sash now. So I've been, uh, you know, brown, um, is next to black. And so, oh, they, they tell me as a, they told me a few days ago, if I stay committed, keep going hard at it this year, that I can be ready to test for my block in the summer, next summer. I find it really interesting that like, when if, when if the only, I mean Kung Fu is one of like the only martial arts other than perhaps something like Krav Maga that has, um, elements in it, which are not practiced elements in it that are not like legal in like the UFC for like mixed martial arts and stuff. Cause I think if I'm right, unless it's, unless it's Wing, Wing Chun that I'm talking about, maybe things like eye poking and like, yeah, Wing Chun is more close, uh, so yeah, go ahead. Sorry, I found that really funny. I mean, my, my background is primarily in Taekwondo. Um, I've done, I've done a little bit of a martial arts, but Taekwondo was the one that I took forward. And I've, I've always had like a really strong predilection for like full comp, like sparring and things like that. It's always been something that I've really, really enjoyed. Um, I've done a little bit of boxing, uh, when I had my, uh, bike crash in Thailand about kind of like four years ago, the thing, the thing that, that caused me to go get this surgery that I've had recently, um, I obviously, I couldn't kick very well. I did, I did enter the national championships, British national championships and managed to get two wins and get a bronze medal, which I was very pleased with myself with because I could not, um, use my, my right leg at all during that competition. So, so I, I, anyway, I transferred to, to do a bit of boxing, you know, uh, starting doing a bit of weight lifting, things like that. Um, I'm really hoping to get back into martial arts because it's always been like a really, really integral part. I find that exercise is one of the, the only things that really significantly reduces my anxiety and overload on like a daily basis. Yeah. And that's the, absolutely. I actually have done boxing. Uh, I've been doing boxing the last, uh, year I've been doing, um, um, a lot more boxing and different stuff. I just, uh, punches, uh, in different aspects. Uh, my friend actually runs a new club in Woodstock and, uh, we are doing, we've done tremendously well. Um, I've helped out a lot with, uh, we did the big champion. Well, uh, the big boxing day stuff, uh, box or boxing day, the big, um, boxing, uh, card we had August 6th for, uh, our fair old home week and, uh, and, uh, the four people that we're fighting in our group, um, all one. So it's a new young club and it's, they've done well so well. I never, I never actually got into like boxing, sparring. Um, I think like I really want to, and I, I'm very much like, uh, uh, brawler type of fighter. I quite like to, to, to trade strikes and things like that. But I think I was just really put off by the, um, constant brain trauma. I think that was, that was like a point where I think, you know, I use my brain for a lot of things. I, I, I, you know, for stuff around science, if I want to get back in science, I have to use my brain for podcasting, for writing, anything like that, they all use my brain. So I'm like, I was always on, like for that year that I, I properly did boxing, it was, um, it was always really, really on my mind and sort of holding me back from it. Um, but I am, I'm considering going in and like, uh, there was a Muay Thai gym near me and I'm wanting to, I'm, I'm even wanting to go back into Muay Thai, go back into Taekwondo or go back, back into, I'll start, start with Muay Thai. Um, because although I, I, I like the idea of boxing and Taekwondo cause they're quite, they're quite similar ones. Just you kick and you punch, um, other than sort of the scoring system and stuff, but, um, I, I feel like it'd be a waste to, to waste all my Taekwondo training and go into boxing. Like, I can already kick quite well. So it's, um, seems quite, it seems like it's the right idea, I think. Yeah, I think it's certainly, like Taekwondo is, is awesome. Um, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, Kung Fu has been like basically the start of everything and in a lot of other things I've derivative of derived from that. And, uh, yeah. Yeah. Um, it really has sort of a big impact on like, like other areas of life, like it builds your confidence so much to, to know that you can sort of defend yourself. Like you just, like when people say, oh, I want to learn to fight to protect myself. It's like in most circumstances, if you are a good enough fighter, you won't get yourself into those situations because you just don't, you don't react in the way that most people would if they like try to start, like being hostile and being confrontational and stuff like that. But it's, it's also like, it teaches you grit and like when you, when you put the work in and put all the physical, go for all the physical, um, torture and like, I like to say that we're torture because it's, it basically is. That's what, that's what it is, but, um, you learn all the techniques, you, you perfect yourself, you know, body wise, and it also, it really sort of builds all those like key, um, personality traits like grits and sort of determination and confidence and, you know, it's definitely been absolutely massive for me in my life. So obviously, you know, today we're talking about autistic people during the Ukraine war. I think it would be good for us to kind of get an understanding of what your role has been in sort of supporting autistic people during this really difficult time. So I guess, I guess what I'm saying is what, what kind of work that have you done with Ukrainian families during this war? So, um, I've been doing with limited resources that I have for long range of stuff. I've, in a sense, I've been messaging, like, when I first started this, I've been involved with open sourced because being involved with the military, open sourced intelligence, which is, uh, say, OSINT is OSINT is basically, you know, uh, you can monitor, uh, different channels like on the internet, like, uh, radar, like the civilian radar sites, you can monitor the different, um, uh, chatter from the ground of people living on the ground to different, uh, um, official, official sources to all the way to, um, different sources and videos on the ground. Um, so when Russia wants the invasion of Ukraine in February on February 24th, um, shocked all of us, but, and I knew that there was going to be, there was going to be a need, um, for, um, because I know that there are, you know, parents of autistic family members that we were, and I found out that that definitely there are more of them and I got involved with a group on, um, on Facebook and, and I've sent out basically some feelers, you know, like, um, as an autistic person, look, uh, how are you guys doing? Uh, you guys looking to get out or come to Canada or, you know, and I got a lot of response, uh, and I've been just, you know, helping them share links, um, sharing links with them about, uh, the refugee, um, operations and, uh, trying to come into Canada, depending on the province and it just, I have been hearing and I know, and I've been talking to families and yes, the, the first priority, right? And certainly when the war was, uh, not going as well was food and, um, and supplies and food and water, uh, and the, the aspect of supports for special needs was way down there because, and it's unfortunate because they did not have and you have family members, autistic family members that are overwhelmed, um, scared. Some of them are in conflict zone. Some of them are in Western Ukraine. I had talked to more that were, um, had been in Western Ukraine and, and were leaving. Like some of, a lot of them had gotten to Poland or Czech, uh, the Czech Republic and that would have been a nightmare in itself, right? Cause you're leaving your home. You're leaving everything behind, um, and for family. There's a lot of change, a lot of transitions that they have to, to deal with. Uh, if you can imagine, you know, cause we don't like change. We, we really don't like change like sudden change. I don't either. Uh, but if you can imagine the scale and the, it's just unbelievable. It's just, I don't know. I think especially for young children, that would be extremely hard for autistic children and it just going into Poland where there's hardly any space left and then, um, there's, you're seeing, you know, sometimes in, in the conflict zones, you're trying to, trying to get out and it's very, it's very difficult. Um, especially areas like where has been very tough in Mariopu and, um, and then, you know, areas like Malito pool that have been occupied and, yeah, it's, it's been very hard on people and a lot of them have come to, um, come to Canada and, uh, some of them have been able to come to Canada, like say Toronto or Vancouver or in different areas. We've had more, it's, well, Ukrainians in general coming to New Brunswick. I don't know how many that have autistic family members, but honestly, I mean, I've done the best I can on within the sense of the knowledge that I have. Um, but I've also been involved with this fighting Russian disinformation has been some of the main work I've been doing. I've been doing the, I've been definitely reaching disinformation. Is that like, like things, things to do with autism or just to do with the war or just to do with the war, like the disinformation on, um, you know, on Ukrainian, on the Ukrainian, the lies of, of Ukraine, you know, against Ukrainian people saying that the, you know, they're there for Nazism and that this government is completely corrupt in with and involved completely with Nazis. And, and this was the excuse to invade Ukraine that Putin had used. And so this whole thing had been an ongoing problem. Um, lots of different stuff that they try to manipulate. We've been, we and me and many other people have been fighting against and holding spaces on Twitter. And some of those environments have also not been, um, very autistic friendly, say the least. And that's kind of burnt me out as well a bit. And I've already been doing all this other stuff. And then with the museum, it's been I can imagine a busy year. Oh, yeah. So you said that you were working with sort of like other people who are sort of trying to, I guess, trying to support these families and these autistic adults and things of that nature. I guess what I want to know is like, it's obviously the state of autism, awareness and acceptance and, you know, neurodivisiting all of that. It's, it's something that's very variable country to country. And I've talked to many people from different places like Israel. And I can't, I can't remember the ones, but it's very, very variable from country to country is as far as I can see. And it's not always 100% sort of definite or clear, like, depending on like how much currency they have or like things like that. And, you know, places like Israel, I was talking to Dr. Mordi Benhamu, who was, who's situated in Israel, I may have a really, really good level of awareness and acceptance and inclusion and stuff. So I guess what, what is like the state of autism awareness in places like the Ukraine? It's getting better. But I will say this, compared to, say, Western Europe, England, and France and in, in those areas, it is behind, definitely behind as far as autism and autism awareness. They are very, they're, they're still behind. They're definitely, it's not their fault. It just been, they, they're still a modernizing Western, you know, Eastern European country, but with, modernizing with Western ideals. And that takes years, right? Because being a part of the Soviet sphere of influence for so long, and then coming out of that becoming a democracy, and then with all the internal politics that have been going on in their has been, you know, you know, different changes in government. And then, you know, they, of course, they had a Russian backed president, you know, before 2014, then he was ousted, and then they had a supportive Ukrainian president, national, more of a national president, national's president that was pro-Ukrainian, the Russians didn't like it. So, and then they wanted to take back Crimea, and they did, and then and on, onward and onward. And so autism has really been on a back burner, out of many back burners, but trying to modernize its Western thinking. And thinking doesn't just come easily, it takes years. Same thing we're trying to do in Canada is modernize the thinking of more peer autistic programs developed by autistics and nothing about us without us. And much like in the UK and in the United States, certainly, yes, they, there's a lot of things that they come into play, and that's part of all the social dynamics that have to come into this. And so there's that. What about what about like Russia? Like, do you know, do you know that, do you know about like the state of autism awareness in Russia? It's worse. Russian in Russia, it's Russia's not and Russia has not been it's not open society. I talked to one Russian earlier on in the war. There's no mental health support. There's no and worrying about being different. And especially if you are if you are gay, if you are LGBTQ, Putin does not like that. The government will go against that fully. And people are being arrested. People were being hurt. Some were being killed. That all that's a minority group that is definitely oppressed in Russia. Doesn't matter what the people say. Yeah, it just yeah. Because I guess like one of the things that you know, because we're talking about like the effects of the Ukrainian war, like it's not it's not I suppose it's not only like civilian Ukrainians that are affected by this whole thing. It's it's also the Russian Ukrainians. And I did get the Russian Ukrainians. The autistic Russians that are being affected as well. And I did recently did a sort of an anonymous interview on my Instagram. And I was talking to this, this, this led from from Russia. And he was saying exactly the same as what you're saying is saying that all like the provisions like the medication, the, you know, sort of the general sort of attitude of like the government as well as the people towards people who are diverse, whether it's sexuality, whether it's autism, whether it's you know, whether it's neurodiversity. I mean, yeah, it's too bad. It's just it's too bad. I mean, you think that, you know, after the fall of the Soviet Union, there's always the sphere of trying to bring the the Russians into a into more of a modern way of thinking and a more Western way of thinking and a democracy way of thinking. And there's a lot of corruption that came in with that. And then there's a lot of and there was corruption in the Soviet era as well. But also there was certainly Russia with Vladimir Putin, you come into a man of the old way of thinking, the KGB, an old KGB style man way of and a exclusionist and nationalist Russian way of thinking and, you know, thinking that the West is the enemy. And, you know, that's that same expansionist and Soviet way of thinking, if not czarist way of thinking, you know, czarist in some ways. I'm not too too upon what that means. Well, one person has ultimate the ultimate power was czar, czar Nicholas II and his family were in charge when the the before the Soviet era took over in 1917, there was the Bolshevik Revolution. And the czars were czar, czar Nicholas II and his family were were taken out of power. And the Soviet era became, you know, at this socialist and communist rule. Yeah, one bad government lead to another, in a sense, just another form. Well, um, I guess like, so obviously we've we've understood that, you know, things things are not looking great for autistic people. And I don't like to say both sides of the war because I don't, you know, I'm not like angry at the the Russian people, I'm angry at the people who are who are in power. And I'm angry at the people who are forcing people to to go to war. And obviously, there are going to be some Russian individuals who, you know, they believe they believe what they're saying. And they believe that the people who are doing all of these actions are just absolutely horrific and, you know, not not putting humans in the in the best conditions. And say I'm sort of dancing dancing around it, the topic. It's such a it's such a horrible things that thing that's happened. And I feel sometimes a little bit. I don't know, you I think there's a concept that you have around like survivors, guilt and stuff. And I feel like every every day that I'm going that I'm going to work that I'm worrying about very minor first world problem, things like that, that I'm, you know, I'm I'm not involved in the horrible things that are happening and are happening at the moment. And it's it's it's sometimes quite sometimes quite hard to speak about it, because I don't feel sometimes and very involved in it. And I don't want to like speak for for people already want to get anything wrong or like, I just find that the whole thing of war is it is very messy, isn't it? Yes, it's very very messy. And that's the that's the thing from both countries from different perspectives, different political spectrums. It's so hard sometimes just to get a clear picture of what's happening. Oh, absolutely. And that's that is a serious that's a serious thing when war is going on. There's it's the fog of war. And that's and Ukraine is doing very well. I mean, you look at Kharkiv, the Russians have been pushed out of Kharkiv that one has collapsed the Kharkiv Oblast in the east. And the Ukrainians are counter once I've launched a major counter offensive in Kyrgyzstan, they're doing well. And the Russians are doing terribly. They've lost while the Ukrainians say they've lost over nearly 53,000 troops. The Americans and the British will say it's it's slower than that. But again, the Russians will say, Oh, it's it's all fake news. And so I mean, but the Russians are doing terribly and the Ukrainians are taking back their ground. And it's just it that's good. You know, yeah, it is. It is. I think, um, you know, it's it's it's an amazing figure. And I'm from the news that I saw in the UK or on social media or anything like that. It seemed like it was, you know, a matter of weeks before, like the whole whole the Ukraine was was going to be taken over. And it's and we're gonna have to get all of the NATO involved. And like, it felt very, very, very, very like it was going to be like a really quick thing. And, you know, that was months ago. And it it just seems to keep lingering by and, you know, all of all of the the press and all of the media that's in in the UK at the moment is it's all about like the Queen or like the celebrities and like it's it's really, I understand. I get it. I get what nobody wants to hear about war all the time and horrible things happening. But it just feels a little bit disillusioning sometimes to know that these things are happening right now. And we're all focusing on our own first world problems and first world news and like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I mean, the Queen is certainly an exception to the fact that, you know, such historic, she's so historic. She's her majesty. My thoughts and prayers are with the family. And of course, her majesty was a big a big figurehead for, you know, the Western world and not just the Commonwealth States and calm the the British Commonwealth, including Canada, but all over the world. I mean, it just she was such a lovely lady. I mean, and I think that Monday I do I'm in full uniform for the funeral services with my Legion. I'm involved with the Legion as well. I'm actually, they're starting at arms. So I get to dress up and with the beret and everything and in flags. And so I guess, you know, we've talked about kind of like the state of autism awareness in Eastern European countries like Russia, like Ukraine, like different different areas of the world. And we've also talked about, you know, the kind of work that you're you you have been doing and currently doing to try and help our autistic people during these really difficult times. So I guess I'd I want to be a bit more like specific. No, from because you've been in contact with so many people and sort of taking this active effort, I guess one on what I want to know is what are the common issues that are facing Ukrainians or autistic Ukrainians at the moment? Well, I can see that for one thing with everything going on. I mean, since the start of the war, it might be better now because Ukraine's doing better. More Ukrainians are moving back home, certainly into Western Ukraine. One thing I can think of right now is certainly the major disruption. Like, I mean, if you can imagine the life, especially if you know, you're more sensitive, if you're an autistic, that's more sensitive to your timeline and your and your, you know, your schedule, that being completely interrupted, and things being interrupted on a major scale. You know, the in the war zone, you've got a lot of, you know, threat to life scenarios, including, you know, artillery shells coming down, you've got, so if you can imagine if you're more sensitive to noise and your world being some, there are autistics in Ukraine that we don't even know about that their that their world has been turned upside down. And that's not just that's talking about a minority within a community that's in that Ukrainian communities world has been turned upside down since February 24th. The not only acts of genocide and indiscriminate bombing and indiscriminate strikes with cruise missiles with 2,000 pound warheads to and people being you know, alive one minute and killed the next. All that it's all that in in combination of needing to get supplies needing to and there's been enough, especially in the major cities, they've been well supplied with food and material, which is great from the Western countries and onward and different organizations, but but it's worse in other areas. Outside of larger cities, say around in the east, it has been worse. It's ground is more has been castured back now, but in areas in Saltifca, like outside of and outside of Kharkiv and small villages that have been shelled, farming towns and fields have been destroyed. And so that's food disruption. And it has been more desperate for getting food in for these smaller communities. And if you can imagine, autistics living in war in these rural communities, it would be definitely hard. Plus all the stuff that they face in a sensory level to begin with. And so the there's that and then that's what everybody has been dealing with. But as you know, you and I process things and feel things differently. So it can be more acute. And then it can be more more difficult to to function. And executive functioning would be something difficult for some people. Definitely if they're not with family and and sometimes that can be contribute to life and death situations and it being extremely difficult. So that is something that and even so Ukraine, they didn't have anything, they don't have much of anything for autistic adults, except maybe in the major cities. And even that would not be not be up to, say, Western standards, at least that I know of. And it doesn't mean that I'm completely right. It means that, you know, their vast majority are still in that kind of sphere of awareness and acceptance is behind. And so, yeah. I, um, I think, you know, sort of things that kind of spring to mind, like she was saying about sort of the the the movements from from different areas of of the Ukraine to different countries into different areas of the different other areas of the Ukraine. Like there's a lot of movement. And like, I can imagine even for, you know, for for ASD one individuals like, like myself and yourself, like that, that is such a such a massive difference. And it's not like they're going to places that they know, it's not like they're going to another home that they have, they're staying with people there in, you know, I when I was watching the news, I was seeing people who are outside and they were waiting to get to get planes and to be transferred to different places and like, like in in those conditions, with with all of these these horrible things that are happening in the threat of like mortality, it's such a it's I can't imagine just just how people how how I mean people in general, but autistic people function in those in those settings, like transition wise, anxiety wise, mental health wise, you know, they're not going to be accessing the the pharmaceuticals that they would usually have access to. They're not going to be they're not going to have available food that they that they like and that they usually have, you know, if they have conditions like Alfred, you know, they have Alfred. I can't remember what the acronym was, but basically, like medically picky to like having to yeah, yeah, not not being able to avoid variety of things. And yeah, like just that those those two in general, just that if I struggled with Alfred, Alfred, and if I know being being as myself, if I had to flee my home at the moment, and there was there was a bunch of shelling going on, and there's lots of difficult news and lots of last minute changes to my massive massive changes to my life, I don't know how it would cope. And like, well, where am I going to get the medications that are which which are saving me like there's so many aspects to it that I just I can't comprehend what it would be. I can I can I can imagine, but I can't fully put myself in that situation and possibly feel what those people are feeling like. And if we're speaking about the families, if we have ASD ASD two and three individuals who need that full time support and care, I can imagine some of the children that I that I used to work with as a special needs TA if that was to happen, like, they would, I don't understand how the families and how the individuals would be able to function on any level. And I wanted to put out there, I have a friend who is a journalist in Kharkiv and Sarah Ashton Cyrillo. She is she's openly a trans advocate. And she's she's awesome. She's she's a minority within the our sphere and what not. I'll just say that she's an awesome autism. Oh, she's an autism advocate as well. I mean, but either way, like, she's open things. She is a journalist, an independent journalist in Kharkiv. And she's awesome. She's helped us on so many levels with open source intelligence. But she's also helped so much of fighting Russian disinformation in Ukraine. And she's she's been in the middle of this war. For over six months. And she's still in Kharkiv, risking her life. And but she's done. And there's no you know how the big media, they don't like to sometimes they'll they won't show how bad it is. But they'll show it's bad, but they won't show how bad it is. She doesn't put any filters in it. It's it's just she tells it like it is that just she's one of the best journalists that I've ever seen. She's she's awesome. She's been there. And so she's certainly been dealing with, you know, experiences of, you know, not having access to certain medications and seeing, you know, that that aspect I can see as well for many, many autistic Ukrainians. So that that experience is something where there's shortages on many levels of different things. And, of course, in the worst part of the conflict, you're worried about the basics. The basics are food and water, shelter. And you know, so there is so much. There's so many things that come into play there. I mean, imagine, you know, you're in the middle of the night, your your area is getting shelled or with missiles again, and then again. And that's a she's desensitized to that stuff. Now, I mean, anybody would be that's that's living there. But Ukrainians are just going to work every day, they're going to eat at restaurants, even though there's no another air raid, there's more missiles coming in as so it goes to show the inner strength of people. And when you try to break the spirit of the people, and the English know this very well because during the Blitz, they Hitler thought that, you know, it was going to break the will of the people by bombing and fire bombing London and major cities. No, it made them more determined. This is exactly what was happening here. So yeah, it's the will of the people. It's really interesting. Yeah, I guess, you know, sort of the natural no question around this, because we've we've talked about, like, different aspects of autism in context of the Ukrainian war. But we haven't really talked about, like, what what people can do, like, you know, obviously it's been going on for a while. And it's it's horrific. And it's, you know, sometimes we feel like we want to shy away from it. And we don't want to speak about it. And other times we feel very, very passionate and we really want to help. I mean, I I know that, you know, when I was hearing the news on this, I wanted to to do as much as I could. But no, there was a situation where I was talking to what I thought was a Ukrainian person coming in to try and help. And then they, you know, I said, okay, I can give you enough supplies for a week or something like that. And then it sort of took me to this dodgy website and like to transfer money over. And I was like, I, I don't know if this person is actually real anymore. And yeah, I, I would, I was always looking for something that I couldn't do to actually try and help. So what is it that the individual people can do? And, and I guess, Western society can do to support your autistic Ukrainians during this time? What are some of it? Well, you can go on to go on Facebook. It's a big group. So to look it up, Autistics in Ukraine. So that's the Autistics in Ukraine, the Facebook page. Yeah, it's a there's a U for U.A. for Ukraine. And yeah, it's one. And I'm just looking at like, there's different groups. There's yeah, okay, here we go. So there's the main group that I've been a part of, which has been Ukraine Autism Help. And then it's in it's in Ukrainian. And there's like 4,400 people on there. So there's different. This has certainly been something that has been an ongoing operation. And there's different. There's different groups on Facebook you can look at. There's not just one specific one. But and I've been trying to my help. I've tried to help some and which is good. I've been in contact with family members that have contacted me. But I've also been kind of overwhelmed with all the stuff that's going on as well. So I've been, you know, you don't want to limit yourself, but you almost got to like just, yeah, it just you almost get because you got so much going on in your life. And then you kind of get burned out. But it's, it's a lot. It's a long game with this has been happening for a long time. Yeah, this is a long game, not a, not a marathon. This is this is a marathon, rather. This is not a sprint. The autism community can do more on these pages and they can and they can get in touch with them. So I'm giving them the exposure so that people can get in touch with them, which is great. I think that that's something that should be out there. And I think I feel bad in a sense that maybe I haven't done enough is because I've got everything going on and then it just kind of and then with the doing the open sourced intelligence stuff, you kind of eventually you get I mean, it's not and it's not just that. It's also the drama that comes with it and unbelievably so there is has been some like on the on the spaces, the Twitter spaces, which we operate. There's been, you know, trolls and then other people wanting getting involved in this for, you know, trying to steal money or, you know, and it just so there's there's all kind of different strange actors on the internet, right? So that can is a kind of thing that can burn you out too. I try to be careful because the spaces are not very they're okay. They're not autistic safe enough like anybody can join and start trolling people, right? If you let them up and you don't know who they are. So it's not as minority safe as it should be. That's just the Twitter spaces in general. Yeah. Long story short, what about so you've talked about sort of in terms of an individual basis, you can can get involved with those communities, maybe help them share their stories, maybe help them, I guess, maybe fund fundraise for different supplies, you know, offer some some advice, some support. But I guess what what could like, I guess the wider communities in Canada, America, and the UK sort of do to support them in a house has there actually been anything that there's just been put out to transport these people? To transport them well, they you know, they've given like Canada has definitely expedited people that have wanted to come to Canada early in March, you know, to escape the fighting. And and and then some of those people now because the the Western Ukraine is pretty safe right now. And they are the Russians are being pushed back and they're not doing very well. The Ukrainians are kind of attacking everywhere, which is good with the new equipment we gave them. So they're coming back into Ukraine, but there's different organizations you can you can donate to. There's one of the biggest ones like for the Ukrainian Army Save a Life.ua. And there's I don't know about there's different organizations you can look at online that will help autistic Ukrainians. There's not very many of them, but there are they do exist. I'm just trying to bring one up right now here. And so autistic for Ukraine, you can there's been like different fundraiser events and expert speakers and whatnot that can help help out. There's been different stuff on zoom and you can get part of you just have to kind of do your your your research. And I actually have been sharing the guides, the autism mental health guides that York University and I and other people have helped create. So and so that's been part of that's brilliant. Yeah, definitely. And I just have to say I have the absolute utmost respect for you for for doing all of this for like it can't be something that's that's easy. Like I imagine that it's quite hard on on you to kind of, you know, for me, I'm sort of going up my daily life. I'm not really really thinking about it that much. But for you, you kind of actively trying to help and work and you know, obviously manage different aspects of your life. You know, it's it's really amazing, like the support that you're providing these people and like yeah, I just just massively respect the work that you're doing and you for doing all of this. Well, thank you. I do appreciate it, Thomas. And we need to do another one of these podcasts because it's almost too much to unpack in one day. It could definitely be something that we we ever we ever think about for the future. So I mean this, you know, obviously this has been quite a hard hitting episode. I don't have any any questions from Instagram like I usually have to kind of do a Q&A because I I feel like it's enough to speak on this. And I right, I feel like it would it would just be good to kind of have a stand alone sort of episode where we really talk about the horrible things that happening and the ways that we can understand what what it may be like for autistic individuals both in Russia and both in the Ukraine and also ways that we can actually as individuals help and support Ukrainian autistic people and Ukrainian families who support autistic people. I've been wanting to talk about this for a while. And it's obviously something that's incredibly emotionally charged and, you know, I I feel the I don't like wouldn't like to say that I'm I can understand their situation, but I definitely feel I want, you know, I want to help. I want to do something. And I'm hoping that our podcast that we've done today is kind of illuminated some of the the things that may be happening, some of the the work that audits a man of cuts like yourself are doing. And of course, if if anybody anybody who is listening finds this this episode quite hard to to digest and hard to feel about, I would always get in contact with many family members or friends to kind of talk it out or like different different organizations that offer support for mental health. I think it would be really good if you are feeling perhaps quite negative and overwhelmed by listening to us talk about this these horrible events definitely definitely do that. I mean, usually I would I would end by doing the the Instagram Q&A asking for like a song of the day. But I think maybe it might be quite apt to include the Ukrainian national anthem as part of the playlist. I think it would be definitely definitely a good thing to do. So I will I will add that to the to the growing playlist, the growing 40 or T podcast playlist that I have on Spotify. And you can find that in the links below. And of course, if you want to stay up to date with the advocacy work that I'm doing, some of the the blogs that I do on Instagram, the YouTube videos that I make. If you if you want to be listening to this, the YouTube channel, Thomas Henley, all of my social medias are Thomas Henley UK at Thomas Henley UK. And you can also head over to my website where I'm starting to set up some some form of coaching business things. I'm looking to sort of go a bit more self employed with the work that I'm doing so that I can do more of it. And of course, if you want to find the 40 or T podcast, it is available on most podcast streaming services as well as YouTube under Thomas Henley. If you want to get in touch about what we've talked about today, or do you just want to get in touched in general? At this this time in this moment, my email is aspergysgrowth at gmail.com but it is likely to change it will probably something around Thomas Henley at thomashenley.co.uk something like that. But I will try to update it in the description if not. So yeah, that that that's that's all for me. I guess what I want to ask you Aaron is do you have any any links or any any things that you want to share? I know you've shared a lot of links around Ukrainian support and autism for Ukraine and things like that. But do you have anything that I'm sure. So my my account on YouTube is Aaron Boma A-A-R-O-N-B-O-U-M-A and so I've got a few subscribers as you can see some of my my page you can see some of my model pics and different stuff like that. And then all the presentations I do on like the Second World War First World War there's different stuff on there. I haven't added stuff lately, but I'm going to hear soon. So that's giving you a follow. Oh, great. Excellent. You've got me. OK, great. You see the the my front picture is of a wooden tank. It's like an old First World War tank. That's it. OK. Very cool. So, yeah. Also, on Twitter, I'm at at Canada five, six, six and then on yeah, on Facebook I'm Aaron Boma and then you'll see me in Legion uniform. My business is at Bauma Woodworks B-O-U-M-A Woodworks and on Instagram, I've got two Instagrams. I've got at General Bauma. So that one is my main one. And then I've got the business one that is at Bauma Woodworks. So and yeah, so I've got a bunch of different. Well, I will try and put as as many of those in the description as my podcasting allows my podcast service allows. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, do you want to just say a few words kind of something that you want to say to the audience around this these horrible times or perhaps to any Ukrainians that might be listening. So to all Ukrainians that are listening know that we are with you and that NATO and Canada and our allies are supporting you and that you will win this fight. And I'm I want all autistic people everywhere to know that, you know, the world's changing. I think it's changing. It's changing it forever slowly, but hopefully less and less painful and more and more open, at least to our to our thinking and to our beliefs and the way we function. Know that me and many other people are working tirelessly to try to change things in society for the autistic community as a whole. And it is not not easy. Know that, you know, I've been shot down numerous times. And that's including trying to get into the Canadian military. But hey, we are working to try to change things. And I'm working to try to change things on a on a level, you know, that's that's innovative and forward thinking. And then and many of us are involved in doing that. Stay strong. I want to encourage autistic voices to get out there and to I know it sometimes for some of us, it's hard to find the courage to speak out because we are afraid of being judged. And I may be an extrovert. Some others may have a harder time doing that. Know that, you know, I'm here to help you and encourage you and Tom as just as as Thomas is certainly and, you know, and I really hope that we can do another podcast soon because this is this is really cool. I yeah, I've got a we haven't even talked about working out because I do so many workouts and I was squatting yesterday and I'm sore. It's just it's just yeah, I know. It just it's great. So and thank you for having me and I'm hoping to do, you know, continue to work hard at what I do and hoping that people are encouraged and inspired to be able to push forward in their lives and and and have the courage to keep moving even when times are tough. I am hoping to have the museum open, my museum open in in spring of twenty twenty three. Praying I can get it done. Very cool. Well, thank you very much for those words and I think it's it's probably probably time to say so goodbyes. Thank you for taking time to come on my podcast and for obviously doing all of this amazing work and to where everybody out there. Thank you for listening. Remember, get in contact if you've you've you find this this episode quite hard to listen to. And yeah, hope you guys hope you dies. My God, hope you guys are doing well and I'll see you in another episode of the forty orty podcast. See you later, folks. Take care.