How Miss Malaika Supports Children Living with Autism in Ghana

Miss Malaika, Pearl Nyarko-Mensah assisting children living with autism

Accra, Ghana, August 13, 2018//-The story of supporting children living with autism in Ghana can never be told without mentioning the contribution of the current Miss Malaika, Pearl Nyarko-Mensah.

She has devoted all her life for supporting these children as well as creating awareness on autism, erasing stereotypes associated with the condition, and changing the perception that children with autism cannot live their dreams to the fullest in the country.

The Smile & Aid project

Ms Nyarko-Mensah who is Miss Malaika 2017 works in partnership with Charter House, organisers of the Miss Malaika Ghana beauty pageant to implement her ‘Smile & Aid’ project.

Immediately after winning the coveted crown in November last year, she embarked on ’10 Days of Giftmas’ programme in December, to support parents of children living with autism.

Ms Nyarko-Mensah who is currently pursuing an M.Phil. degree at the University of Ghana explained to African Eye Report how it all got started.

After doing  series of minor projects, ” I launched my main project which is the Smile & Aid project. I got in touch with some autism centres in Accra to roll out the ’10 days of Giftmas’ programme in December 2017″.

“What I did was, I targeted parents who have kids living with autism. The main theme was : ‘aappreciating mothers with children living with autism’. So, I delivered hampers to each parent and spend time with that family on that day”, she said in an interview.

Ms Nyarko-Mensah continued: “Each day, I targeted a parent and would go and visit them and spend some time with them and their family and tell them that I appreciate what they are doing”.

In some of her 10 days to Christmas countdown visits, she was amazed to see some of the fathers there to support their wives with children living with autism.

” It is really touching to see that the fathers are also supporting the mothers who take care of their kids with autism.

Because it is not like every dad who supports his wife with autism children, some do back away. They won’t want to do anything with such children”, Ms Nyarko-Mensah

Targeting more centres

Also, as part of her project, she paid a number of visits to autism support centres in Accra and outside the capital city.

For instance, Ms Nyarko-Mensah has been to the Autism Awareness Care and Training Centre at Kokomlemle, a suburb of Accra to do a donation.

” I have also been to Awaawaa2 Centre at Haatso in the Ga East Municipal Assembly of the Greater Accra Region. There is one at Swedru in the Central Region (Adehye Special Home), that I’m targeting, that is the only autism awareness centre in Swedru”.

“So, I’m  trying to raise some funds to support that centre because the owner started it in her home. Most parents are even afraid to enroll their kids in such centres”, she indicated.

She explained that some parents usually come early in the morning and drop their kids in such centres. They wear shades, hats and  clothing to disguise themselves so that people won’t see them dropping their children living with autism, Ms Nyarko-Mensah added.

“And they would even try to label them, try to disassociate themselves from such children, so they can feel comfortable and fit within the society. It is really sad”.

Why her passion for autism people?

She revealed to this publication: “With regards to my autism project, it is something that I’m really passionate about. What drove my passion was the fact that before I started my national service, I got the opportunity to work with a child who was living with autism. And I played the role as a special need teacher whereby I taught that child English and Mathematics”.

So, I used the RPM method which is the Rapid Planning Method to teach the child and I was okay. I got to know that people living with autism are just people living in a different world. They are just like you and I”.

“The fact that we are not able to interact with them is because we don’t understand the world that they are living in. Once you to get understand where they are coming from, you will know how to interact with them and help them to develop cognitively, and socio-emotionally, because that is very important”.

Miss Malaika, Pearl Nyarko-Mensah in a pose with one of the kids

Stigma

She stressed: “When people hear that you are someone with autism, they are some people who are afraid to interact with you because they feel that you will become very aggressive.

Some people will even think that you are coming from a cursed background, people are very superstitious in Ghana. They would think that you either coming from a cursed background or you are a cursed person probably it may be coming from your parents, or it could be from the extend family”.

Back to the stigma issue, some of the parents mentioned that they had to stop working because they have to be with their kids who live with autism 24/7. Some said they have to stop attending churches just because when they go there they are not welcomed, according to Ms Nyarko-Mensah.

“People look at them skeptically. They don’t want to stay close with their children because they think that it is contagious. Scientifically, it doesn’t make sense”.

“They also don’t want to be associated with someone who has a family member living with autism because they feel like the stigma is contagious or autism is contagious, so they will be labeled as no-go areas. It really affects the parents socially, emotionally and psychologically. That is really sad”.

Fighting autism stigma

So, the emphasis here is to advocate against the stigma to tell people that children living with autism are also human beings. There is nothing wrong with them, she stated.

“They are just living in a different world. We should see them as such and try to learn about autism, learn about the dos and don’ts, try to put ourselves in their shoes.

Because these people are people who are having neurological disorders. They are people who are having some kind of behavoural disorders because of that they cannot adapt to our environment like the way we adapt to”.

“So, once we are able to put ourselves in their shoes, we will be able to know that this is how they feel, try as much as possible to help them deal with the situation. We should also try to deal with the environment to be able to cope with the stimuli that they are faced with each and every single day”.

Campaign yielding results

Some people have got to know about autism for the first time through Ms Nyarko-Mensah’s campaign.

She emphasised: “Some already heard about it but don’t really know much about it are now educated. And those who have heard and educated but they still have prejudice have a change of mind now. They now know that it is not anything difficult”.

It may have challenges but it is not difficult trying to lend a helping hand to someone living with autism or interacting with that person socially. It is actually fun being with them, the Miss Malaika Queen noted.

She however admitted that there was a lot of work to be done, saying  “Rome wasn’t built in a day, so it takes a really long time for that impact to be massive in society. Bit by bit, people are now beginning to change their perception towards people living with autism in the country”.

Ms Nyarko-Mensah is looking at a future whereby the country, and eventually, the entire world will have a different perception about people living with autism. A world whereby such people will be accepted and even get to be in the corporate world and be independent. That is her wish.

Miss Malaika, Pearl Nyarko-Mensah

Autism which is a neurological and developmental disorder characterised by issues with social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behaviour, affects an estimated 70 million people worldwide. In Ghana and other African countries, the figures are quite staggering.

In African countries like Ghana, many children with special needs do not get the care they need due lack of available resources.

By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report

Email: mk68008@gmail.com

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