 Yes we are back with Quin's Wednesday on why and the morning I go by the name of by Moses or it's by more Navy social media platform special thanks to Hilda with he he and Joim which actually for always starting our Wednesday on a laughing note if you happen to interact with some videos that you think would go viral or break the views just send them to us on white 54 channel on Twitter white 54 underscore channel on Instagram and white 254 on Facebook so today on strength of a woman it's about that time we have amazing women in studio with me or let me just call them Queens and yes they're passionate about the less fortunate in society and they're from the light for autism Kenya we have the chairperson and we have missed autism Kenya as well I let them introduce themselves so we can carry on carry Boonsana. Okay thank you so much so my name is Faith Nakoya Musumba and the chairperson of the Light of Autism Committee which is organizing two events on April so the first event is a heart-to-heart talk and the second one is light mist and miss autism Kenya so they're both happening on 20th April and yeah I'd encourage all of you to buy tickets which are coming out tomorrow if you want to buy tickets visit our website at lightofautismkanya.org yes we'll be talking about the event and thank you very much for coming through to why in the morning guess miss autism Kenya my name is Kelly Kinavia I'm the reading Miss autism Kenya I am glad to be part of the autism society because it's true autism that you learn a lot of things how to be patient how to be loving how to embrace everything that comes with autism as a condition and I'm glad to serve I would really act as an autism ambassador basically focusing on projects that will cover the children living with autism or other individuals living with autism generally so I basically champion for their rights champion for their projects champion for their therapy sessions yes nice one so before we can carry on if I was to define autism I'll use the dictionary definition but being that you've worked with people with autism and you've got to interact with maybe their parents and got to explain to some of their parents who are some they didn't go to school how can you define this to a layman a layman so I just say it that I define autism as a broad range of brain disorders that affects one's ability to interact and communicate with others that's the simplest I think I can put it because autism itself it cannot be simplified it's the full name of autism is autism spectrum disorder it's so broad it's so diverse two people they need for the one spectrum yes yes so it's even the conditions it's kind of difficult to describe the symptoms because one person with autism can differ from another person with autism yes so each person is special yes all right you guys are so passionate about people with special needs and inclusive development yes all right so maybe you can make me understand what is this inclusive development because there are people have been sidelined everybody is complaining and the girls or the queens are saying no we have been sidelined are these people are saying we have been sidelined what is this inclusive development okay so I'll put inclusive development where you just incorporate everyone simply absorbing them in the society and ensuring that they have equal access to everything and to every resource because basically like when you focus on people living with autism they have special needs that need to be met in a special way and that requires special attention and for people living with autism they have a repetitive behavior they have a behavior that is considered not normal according to us who are neurotypicals so I'll say inclusive development is all about incorporating everyone and ensuring that they access everything at the right time and just like any other normal individual because what I try to embrace and also champion about is that we should include everyone we shouldn't seclude people living with autism just because they have a normal a condition we should actually ensure that they are all they access they have access to education they have access to sports they can do things especially with autism are so talented they can even draw they can make paintings so they shouldn't be excluded just because they have they don't have a normal condition just like us people so it's all about championing for their rights and also ensuring that they get access to whatever us guys get access to early childhood education is very expensive yes especially if you want that a1 quality so when a mom is told your kid is suffering from autism the first question she's going to ask and my child go to school with other kids okay so there's different levels of autism right there's high functioning autism and then there's low functioning autism so people with high functioning autism they are able to learn quite well in normal schools in the average schools and therefore I would say for a high functioning autistic person it would be much easier for them to get into a normal education system however someone with low functioning autism is going to be a bit more difficult they're going to need therapy to help them get integrated into the average education system yes so like I said it's a broad range we cannot just say just because you have autism automatically all of you are the same and all of you can be included or can be they need intervention before they enter into education right so I'm trying to understand it's a spectrum as you say yeah some of them it affects them I hear some of them can't even speak yes some of them can't communicate sure some of them can't hang out with people some of them can do things normally so what is this thing you tell mom who's having such a baby okay so the symptoms of autism can actually be identified as early as 18 months usually a third of all autistic people are non-verbal so if you notice that your child is not speaking is taking too long to learn how to speak then perhaps you should go and and see a therapist and get the child diagnosed perhaps it could be just a late speech development or perhaps it is not necessarily yes yes so it's best to actually seek out help from a therapist to get an accurate diagnosis yes you might also notice some other symptoms such as difficulty expressing their emotions or difficulty understanding people's gestures like if I'm angry I will show you that I'm angry with a frown but with a child with autism you might have to tell them I am angry for that child to understand oh she is angry so if you notice that your child is having difficulty with that things like that communication if it's verbal or non-verbal then perhaps should get them diagnosed however it's best not to assume anything always seek a therapist always sick a therapist always sick a therapist yes educating them is quite a challenge yes it's true it's quite a challenge they need some special kind of attention yeah all right so I'm trying to understand I'm told people with autism have very special talents some of them we might never spot some of them cannot talk to us and tell us how they see things yes all right so is it for each and every person suffering from autism they are special in a different way yeah everyone is special in different ways regardless of whether you have autism or not yes so like I said autism is a broad range of brain disorders yes so each of them has their own strengths in different areas some of them are really good in music did you know that Mozart was autistic yes I heard yes and did you know Albert Einstein also had autism yes I had two different talents music one it one's a physicist one's a musician so you can see that this is endless by the way yeah so many successful people who are suffering from this I don't want to see suffering we're living with this yes all right so how did you find a passion in this particular line of special needs okay so the way I found out about autism generally was last year early last year I saw this pageant it was called life miss and miss autism Kenya that time I was not the chairperson then I was shocked because it was basically shock I had never known that there were that many cases of autism in Kenya I in my mind I thought it was I was quite ignorant in those days so I thought it was a white person's disease I thought maybe there were five people in Kenya and we assume so much I know when it comes to depression post-traumatic stress exactly we assume it's a Western thing yeah so with that shock I was I realized that I'm part of the problem the fact that I thought that I was so enlightened I've always considered myself enlightened and I thought I'm so enlightened and an enlightened person like me is not aware of this condition someone needs to bring these people into the light the biggest problem the biggest challenge that these people face people with autism face is lack of awareness because if you don't know the problem exists how are you going to seek a solution you're never gonna try and seek a solution for a problem that you don't know exists so you need to understand the problem first yeah how did you get yourself in this okay so my friend it was early last year and my friend just inboxed me on Facebook sending a poster about the event and apparently there were auditions going on so he was like hey Kelly you model so maybe you can try this out and I was like wait a minute okay it was at a moment where I decided I'm not longer doing pageants again so I was like yeah yeah so I was like okay let me see how it goes so now it's being liked miss ten miss autism I definitely had to research about autism before even contacting the person so that I can tell them that I'm interested in participating in the pageants so I came to learn that it's a unique condition but then again it's affecting most of the people in the society only that people don't know that their children are living with autism because once a parent sees a kid like they're not for performing normally they tend to assume maybe the kid is just disabled they don't seek to know what the problem is they just keep them in the house and they just heighten so that because for children living with disability for any individual living with disability the society is so corrupted to think that it's it's form of a bad spell is there's a lot of stigma yeah there's a little stigma and so they don't bring out their kids you might be keeping the next time stand in the house yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah we need to work with this kids and we need to always seek medical attention yeah when you notice something yeah so we have pictures on screen right here and maybe you can share with me it's a slide show I think yeah what was going on here okay so this is one of the she was one of the guest of owners she's a person with the special needs autism is not a disability by the way the difference so it all falls under special needs so we invited her to talk about special needs and they need to bring those people into the light bring them normalize the conditions bring them into society I see miss autism somewhere in the background yeah so this was before the announcing of the final winner and now that was after we were crowned yes that is the light of autism her name is Batila why they're so you had three minutes yeah so miss autism kind of light of autism and mr. autism yeah all right so miss miss autism and mr. autism you can break that down for me and then you can break down light of autism yes so the main okay the the main winner for this event is the light of autism this person has to have autism that the ambassador for autism one of the biggest challenges we've seen in Kenya concerning the conditions is that this people with autism don't have someone they can look up to so we're giving them that ambassador someone they can you know put on a pedestal and look up to and say hey if she can be that beautiful and she can do great things and so can I so that is the main ambassador speaks freely about it okay so most people with autism are let's see they're nonverbal so she's not very able to articulate her stuff but she she has some capability now you've identified yes yes so now that the fact that you've identified the problem of nonverbalness that's why we have miss autism and mr. autism they're supposed to help the like they're like assistant yeah so that's supposed to help the light of autism utilize the platform up in an optimal way yeah how has it been working with miss autism Canada well it was a great experience and one you had to learn a lot you had always been the goal like researching about autism because you can't be an ambassador without knowing and understanding the root cause of everything so it was basically you research and I can say it's also fun and interesting because you get to interact with people you're not used to interacting with and also it takes a lot of patience to actually understand because these people at times they they have meltdowns they have tantrums so you have to understand like you really have to be patient I'll say autism is all about having patience all about understanding and knowing that it's different for every child being able to communicate with her yeah you're supposed and being able to observe because observation is very key it's really key yeah because they'll do something and you're like oh okay you're trying to understand what they're trying to communicate so but it's been an awesome experience it's still an awesome experience yeah I was Mr. Autism like it's not yet to speak so at least I'm with you you're trying to have a woman all right I like that what did you guys see in her for her to win this come yeah so she was very inquisitive and then she had found out about autism I think a month before she actually joined the pageant yet she had learned so much it showed that she was eager to learn about the condition and then immediately after she also seemed quite active right so after the event she was able to help us launch a project through the Ada's Foundation which is one of our our partnering organizations yes so she was able to launch the Kajado therapy project through which we provide free therapy services to children with autism as well as other special needs in Kajado so yeah we we we noticed that she has an interest she has interest yeah and she's doing amazing yes all right the big question is always leaders that we elect obviously they're elected and not to represent them by the majority the biggest role is to defend the rights of the oppressed and the weak yes how is the government coming in well the government has okay I don't want to over be overly critical and jump on the bandwagon of saying the government has not done enough but okay so the government opened a bunch of special needs schools including one called Treeside Treeside is in Kasarani I'm not sure if you're aware of it but it's in Kasarani it deals with a broad range of special needs including autism however you find that they have challenges in the sense that some of the teachers are not paid for a duration as long as six months so there on that aspect the government could improve so I think a lot more could be done I'm not saying they haven't done anything they have done something but we should not be satisfied with what we have right now we should ask for a lot more because people deserve a lot more and one of the issues I think one of the reasons I think the government has not done as much as it could is because of the lack of awareness amongst politicians as well as constituencies if constituencies don't know what autism is how are they going to demand for more inclusion they're not gonna do that so education is yes awareness awareness yes so we need to educate the people yes we're not living with autism yes and we also need to include the people living with autism into the education system yeah very important I hope you're listening this year's of education this year's of home affairs if it exists nowadays but we need to include include include yes that is the one yes light of autism kind of the autism society okay now are the two related so the autism society of Kenya is just one of our let's say friends yeah they attend our events and we attend their events we're all network of special needs organizations so light of autism can is not an independent organization by itself it's I'd like to call it a movement that was formed by two major organizations the first one is step up for autism which is based both in America and in Kenya and then the second one is a youth-based organization called ready a does foundation so yes there's those two organizations that form light of autism and then we have those partners such as the Kenya Institute of special needs autism society of Kenya yes so we have a network of organizations that do the same things and we cooperate with one another another one is the differently talented society of Kenya yeah those are they're quite friends they're quite close to us yeah so you have a background in international relations you have a background in public health yes so you directly you have a role to pay in that's right yeah you also have a role to pay in this because they need that a relation and PR and everything yeah so I was reading or I was talking to some people were pro this multi what is it called my multidisciplinary approach yeah this help health problems yeah so maybe somebody's watching out there is an engineer somewhere and it's like how can I help somebody's watching out there's a farmer somewhere is saying how can I help what is my role in this how would you talk to such a person somebody who is whose background is not directly related to health or I are or something similar close to this special needs I find special needs to be quite broad almost anyone can get involved if you consider this let's see autism it's very close to children could you see it mostly affects children it's best to detect it when you're a child so you can have early intervention and you can grow up into a successful functioning adult if you don't get the proper care that you deserve then as an adult you'll be quite you won't fit into society quite well so it's a children's issue and a children's issue is a woman's issue and a woman's issues it's very broad and with public health autism is very clearly a health issue and then with international relations we need to form not only networks within our country but also outside our country with Africa and with the whole world in from 22nd to 27th April we're having the Pan African Congress on autism yes so that's one of the areas in which international relations actually really applies here and as an art as a as an engineer or let's say an architect okay one of the biggest challenges I have a friend with disability her name is Regina Mugure yes so one of the biggest challenges with she faces is the way buildings are structured some people with autism and other disability or special needs they are not able to function well they don't have motor skills so they have they need wheelchairs and things like that yes but the buildings are not very friendly the stairs everywhere in fact one of the we want to this very fancy restaurant I don't want to mention its name but there's no lift or anything so we had to eat outside it's just stairs and there's lack of inclusion in every aspect escalators and not for wheelchairs yes so as an engineer you can include these people in your designs there's so many ways you can you can you can you can involve yourself in solving this problem yes all right as a student of public health miss autism Kenya there's so much pressure on you right now there's so much spotlight on you yeah if I'm not wrong yes all right how are you dealing with it because people will come to you and ask you so many questions how do you how do you deal with all this pressure okay first and foremost is to understand that this is my journey and I have goals that I need to meet and so I tend to ignore every outward pressure and deal with myself first because I have because my number one priority is to help people living with autism so I have to focus on them first before even listening to what everyone is saying out there definitely they are not it all out first yeah you cut it all focus on this thing that you passionate about yes then listen yeah because that they come first there's no other point where the outward pressure will come first before people living with autism because that's why I'm here because I'm representing them so they need to be on my first list and then again I also take suggestions definitely someone will use me up on Instagram hey can you do this I'll definitely look if it's viable and if it's relevant to my course and then definitely I'll take it up all right yeah so many people as a matter of fact more than half of the population of this country have never spent single cent or a single minute to give back what should you tell such people what is the importance of giving back okay I'll say giving back has a joy that okay it brings joy itself just when you know you're giving something to someone who doesn't even know you someone who will even repay you like it gives you a sense of joy and you feel so responsible at that moment and on the other hand it's good to know that when you help you receive in greater portions so it's better if you helped and the fact that you've been blessed even with that little thing that you've been blessed with it's good to give back because you're helping someone somewhere who has who needs help but doesn't have access to resources or whatever you're having two limbs and two hands and life is a blessing yeah it's a blessing so you can share that with somebody who doesn't have the same yes wonderful vice words for miss autism Kenya all right we can focus on the events now since it's the highlight of the day so you have two events yes break them down for us and now we can get involved okay so like I said there's step up for autism and ready a desk foundation they came together to create the light of autism committee right movement committee yeah and the the committee has two main events there's the heart to heart talk and there's the light miss and miss autism Kenya 2019 pageant yes so both events are taking place on 20th April in spots view Kasarani yeah the entry fee for both events is 500 however a ticket to one event will guarantee entry to the other event yes so the first event is the heart to heart talk it will take place in the afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m. yes the heart to heart talk will basically it's a panelist discussion in which parents and guardians of people with autism come and they're educated on how they're given the tools on how to cope with the condition on how to what to feed their children because you know people with autism have a different they need a different diet than as neurotypical yeah so it just gives them tips advice and basically counseling because there's also the stigma which can be quite hard to deal with alone so we also just cancel them in the heart to heart talk so the moms need counseling as well and the kids also need to be taken through therapy yeah what about the dads yeah I also wanted to say the dads though you find that according to how our society has structured things children are considered the mothers and then the father goes out in the public as fear of life goes out and is a brand breadwinner and all that that's how society is still structured and as we work to build the society in a different direction you're focusing on what matters the most right now yeah get your point yeah so you'll find that most people who even we have a step up for autism has a therapy center in my area you'll find that most people who bring children to therapy are women they're the mothers so sadly that's the case however we don't discriminate and say women only women and children only no even fathers can come we invite everyone even youth can come we also we're really focusing on the youth because we are future parents you never know what could happen and it's best to always be prepared you also not necessarily to you but also to your friend or to someone else you know all right yeah so that's the heart to heart so that give me the dates the times and the venues yes so like I said the date 20th April 2019 that's this year and then for the heart to heart talk it will take place in the afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m. same day yes 20th April yes all right so heart to heart talk 2 to 5 2 to 5 heart to heart talk yeah with a charge of 500 the charge of 500 heart heart talk all right yes sports because around yes all right all right later on in the in the evening in the evening from 6 to 10 p.m. we have the light mist and Miss autism pageant now this is just fun it's entertainment we're raising awareness to entertainment it's not badgering you it's not preachy it's fun but at the same time you're learning about autism no badgering this game all right so we have talked about the moms you've talked about the dad's we've talked about the society we're forgetting the siblings the people relate with these kids on a daily all the time the people were there to defend them in case somebody is trying to act a fool somewhere so what would you tell somebody who has a sister or a brother was living with autism how can they approach this particular situation oh okay sometimes yeah most is acceptance you have to accept that yes I have a sibling who is living with autism and the best you can show support to this person is accepting them and understanding that this is their journey they'll have different experiences and the only way you can be there for them is by embracing them as they are don't stigmatize them because if you stigmatize them and you the sibling what will happen to the society always be that yeah let's be there to defend them take them for therapy sessions take them to enjoy the fun that is out there because at the end of the day how you treat them is what will matter and how you actually relate with them so I'll say acceptance in a nutshell acceptance in a show and we should not let it cross over to PT to the other side which is PT because nobody likes PT yeah you should just like to be accepted the way they are thank you very much for coming through to why in the morning and thank you very much for what you're doing to the society at large the social media handles so people can check you and the organizational social media handles as well we'll start with you miss your camera is number four okay you can find me on instagram at kelly underscore kinuthia also on facebook kelly kinuthia and on twitter at kelly kinuthia thank you very much yeah appreciate you alright so I'm gonna start with a movement okay so find us at lightofautismkanya.org you can buy tickets draw events there also follow us on facebook at lightmiss and miss autism kanya and for my personal instagram you can find me at niko.faith yeah that's thank you very much guys for coming we appreciate you so much and keep doing what you're doing for the kids with autism and the society at large we appreciate you this has been strength of a woman and we had amazing women who have a passion for inclusive development if you're doing something special for the society as well white 54 channel on twitter white 54 underscore channel on instagram and white 54 on facebook is the way to reach us slide into our dm we'll consider and then get you here to give you a few minutes of aim and just get to share your story and get to share with the world some knowledge like they shared with me this morning