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In an interview recently with EASY at the charity’s headquarters at Golf Club Road, Christ Church, Natasha said she decided to raise more awareness about autism and offer support to parents dealing with autistic children. “I started the charity. I started in April for National Autism Awareness Month. I’m a behavioural analyst, so I work with children with autism. I started the charity because families with children already have struggles not just the therapy and paying for the multiple appointments. But home life is stressful, so what we decided to do was starting a charity to help pay for sessions and so on.” “Initially we started out paying for the sessions for the children for a year. We paid for behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, anything that we could help with. Sometimes we paid for aids to go to school with the kids, and the goal was to give the parents a bit of ease to catch themselves to get ready for what’s next,” she explained. Natasha said, things with the charity were going well so far and she especially loved seeing the progress of the children she worked with. “For me, watching the difference on a video clip is overwhelming. One of the kids we work with refused to speak, then we used some sentence strips to help him now he would say some things and that’s going to help him progress. “A lot of the children on a spectrum have things that create barriers for their learning, so they’re not going to learn to clap their hands if they’re not looking at you and so on. “Research says there is a window and if you can get something in place before five and seven, the child has a better chance of progressing. If a child is throwing tantrums because he doesn’t speak, you have a better chance of teaching him younger that he can communicate with a device that’s called PEX or a board – it’s a method of communication. It’s a lot harder to teach a seven-year-old that’s used to throwing tantrums that,” Natasha explained. However, due to lack of finance, the charity cannot help the full number of children they would love too. “Our goal is four kids a year. This year we only have two because of funding. The funding comes from company donations. We haven’t branched out into events or anything yet. We are still very small. We don’t have any staff, everyone that works with the charity volunteers,” she said. Still, Natasha praised her very hard-working team for their continued effort and support with the children. “We have a very comprehensive board, which is exciting for me because it feels like I have more support. I have a lot of great colleagues with me who either work with the kids in programme or give advice on how to run it,” she added. She said in addition to working with the children, her team’s main goal was to educate the general population in Barbados on what autism really is and the importance of being diagnosed from very early. “I think here it’s a lack of awareness. People don’t understand what it is, what it looks like, what it means and so on. Just because a child is autistic doesn’t mean they can’t do things. They will always have limitations but everyone has limitations. Some kids, their goal is just to be able to tie their shoes, or feed themselves. With other kids, our goal is to get them to tell time and so on. Each child is completely different. “When you’ve met one child with autism, you’ve just met one child with it. The characteristics are similar that’s how they’re diagnosed but it’s not a one size fits all at all,” she stressed. “Some kids have physical differences; others don’t. I work with a family and we were walking through Sheraton and the little girl was throwing a tantrum every time we walked past a toy store. Mum used to walk her in but then she started throwing tantrums because she wanted something. And that wasn’t ever the deal. “They had a school trip and the mum was nervous so we used to practise walking past the toy store she would lay on the floor and kick and scream. It was for attention because she wanted access to something that she couldn’t have. “A lot of kids would do that. But in her case it continued and continued and got worse. A lady came up to us and said that child just needs a lash or if we send her home with her she would deal with it and the child would be fine. So it’s that little bit of misunderstanding that there’s more going on,” she explained. Natasha said every April for Autism Awareness Month they run a campaign called Light It Up Blue, where they ask companies to turn on blue lights, a way for them to promote autism awareness. She said they were also in the process of creating a support group so parents would have a medium to share their experience with each other. “We want to start a parent support group because there’re a lot of parents dealing with stuff. We support parents as much as we can but we don’t go home with autistic children. We are the ones saying try this or that but we go home to a different environment. We can’t connect on that same level. So a support group would be good for them because some feel very alone,” she said. In addition, Natasha said they were looking to expand even more in the near future. “Barbados has limited resources but we do have resources. It’s just about getting all the info together and getting it out there. We have big plans. We want to eventually work with the ministry and get more information to them and so on. We are still small and we all have full-time jobs but we are a dedicated group,” she added. (DB) Compliments Nation News Article by DAVANDRA BABB

Check out our facebook page and watch our President Maria Holder Small as she commemorates the Month of the Disabled 2018. We’ve got a full calendar of activities coming up this month which we hope you’ll be there to support. Watch the video on Facebook.  

Massy car park Warrens was the scene of our latest educational endeavors, though not well attended by invited guest, the event itself was a huge success. Attendees were able to experience first hand the difficulties faced by persons with disabilities when embarking or disembarking from vehicles (especially in wheelchairs) when there are no parking ramps or when persons who are not disabled unmindfully and selfishly use spaces designated for the disabled. We heard words like eye-opening, new appreciation for, educational, uncomfortable and frustrating after each participant eventually squeezed themselves between two parked cars whilst trying to maneuver in a wheelchair. Passersby slowed down and some even stopped, to watch as our guests tried to get themselves out of what could only be described as a “very tight space” and even applauded after the deed was done. All the participants agreed that their experience was definitely educational, something that they would take with them through life as they were able to truly understand what a struggle persons with disabilities face, and were now better prepared to give their support to a cause which they now fully understood and could more sympathize with. The Council wishes to thank the Parliamentarians who attended, Ms.  Charmaine Roland Bowen of the Barbados Road Safety Association and Mr. Stetson Wiltshire (Red Plastic Bag) for their participation in our event, we know that their voices are now added to ours as we strive to help make Barbados a Fully Accessible destination for all. Check out our FaceBook page for photos. Article by: Nicole Lavine

The Ministry of Social Care is in the process of enacting legislation to protect the disabled community and a draft Bill is now before the Chief Parliamentary Counsel. In her address on Thursday at the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados’ Midterm Delegates’ Conference at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Minister of Labour, Senator Dr Esther Byer Suckoo, expressed optimism that the Bill would be debated soon. She said that “sometime in the very near future, we will have on our statute books, legislation to protect one of our society’s most vulnerable groups”. Dr Byer Suckoo contended that over the years, Barbados had sought to create mechanisms to maintain high standards of care and due diligence regarding the rights and protection of the disabled. In this regard, the Minister of Labour said significant efforts had been made to provide support services to integrate persons with disabilities into the labour force through skills training provided by the National Disabilities Unit. Given this scenario, the Minister told her audience that one must dispel the notion that a disabled person was one who was unable to help themselves, effectively function in society, or someone who was confined at home and unable to work. “We should all be aware now that disability and disabled persons form a spectrum. You have those with mild disabilities to those who have extreme and severe disabilities. So, there is no one cap fits all; we have to realise that there is a spectrum. I am hopeful by now that all of you will agree that disability does not signify inability. In fact, in most cases, it is not inability,” she emphasised. Senator Byer Suckoo reminded the participants that the ‘differently-abled’ were just as valuable to the island’s economic growth and prosperity as able-bodied workers, and that all efforts must be made to ensure that they were not marginalised. “As a nation, it is imperative that we must never forget that our overall productivity and growth is dependent on the inclusion of all persons in our labour force. When all individuals are engaged in decent employment, it not only reduces unemployment figures, it also reduces the burden on those state agencies mandated to provide services; provides support to families; and gives the individual a sense of self-worth,” she said.