Story
Dear friends,
So, today I begin the 27-day countdown to my 40th birthday. I am so grateful for life! I would like to use these 4 weeks to my birthday to raise awareness for a cause I really care about, which is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Awareness. You can learn more about Autism by clicking on this link.
Many of you may not be aware of this, but I am the proud mother of a beautiful 5 year-old girl. She is lovely in every sense of the word. She is smart, loves puzzles, loves to laugh, dance and sing, she’s great at picking up new words, looooves chocolate chip cookies and is thrilled about sports activities. She is a climber, loves to sprint and has got lots of energy and most especially, she loves her little brother. This little girl has taught me so much and made me a stronger, more loving, resilient, and compassionate woman. She has shown me life through her eyes and I love her immensely.
It has been challenging getting the right interventions in Nigeria, but with leaps and bounds, Tammy, her brother, her dad, and I have made great progress. Before I had Tammy, I lived in oblivion, unaware of the fact that many other Nigerian families are unable to access or afford the right interventions to support their beautiful ASDs children. I am from Nigeria, a country on the West Coast of Africa and with a population of nearly 210 million people, the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of 17 April 2018 estimates that about 1 in 59 children in Nigeria are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder and overall approximately 670,000 children are affected by either ASD or some form of disabilities. It’s worth noting, from my experience here, that many of these children are in great need, because there are very few competent intervention service providers here.
I recently became a licensed Registered Behaviour Technicians (RBT) and currently, there are only (3) three Board Certified Behaviour Analysts and eleven (11) other Registered Behaviour Technicians (RBT) in Nigeria certified by the Behaviour Analyst Certification Board (bacb.com).This means there is approximately one certified professional for every 48,000 children.
For my 40th birthday, I want to make it count for many more children affected by ASD. I am fundraising $3500 to support the training of (10) ten Educators/Teachers in various Nigerian schools to build knowledge and capacity, enabling them to have a better understanding of the characteristics of ASD, how it affects the learning of children impacted by it and to equip the teachers with the effective instructional approach to facilitate the right learning techniques for such children. The cost of training for each teacher is $350.
Training of the teachers will be carried out 100% online by the Geneva Centre for Autism. You can learn more about this module online at:
I plan to share the outcome of the training with all donors once all 10 Educators have completed the module.
I would appreciate your donations to support this cause that is so close to my heart for my 40th birthday.
To make a donation, please visit my JustGiving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/autism-fundraiser?utm_term=787NQdWGe
Thank you all for donation!!!