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Ethiopia: Long Way to Go for Autism in Ethiopia

Autism can be one of the most difficult diagnoses to accept for parents. It is particularly due to the challenging symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorder. As with many things that society does not understand, autism also has a certain stigma attached to it. The negativity can make it quite difficult for families struggling to cope with an individual who has the diagnosis. I know a woman named Aster who considers herself as one of the most unfairly welcomed people to this planet.

 

Due to unwanted pregnancy, she became a mother of a boy at the age of 14. She could not continue her education and dropped out of the 8th grade. The father of the kid abandoned her. She had gone through severe discrimination from her family and as well as her relatives and community. To add insult to injury when her son was one year old, he diagnosed with a seizure. Since then, her primary job became taking him to different places where she assumed he would get treatment or even find a cure.

 

However, rather than showing sign of progress, he showed awkward behaviour which was tough to manage. While in this state of confusion about what to do, her close friend who lives in Addis Abeba that knew about autism, brought her to one of the autism centres and her son was diagnosed with autism. She was shocked when she knew what autism is. What was more frustrated was her lack of hope, to enrol him in the centre because there were many children on the waiting list.

 

Luckily after two years of waiting, Aster could not believe when she was told to come and enrol her son in the centre. She decided to move to Addis Abeba from the regional town where she used to live and register her son in the centre which provides free education including school uniforms and transport.

Source: Addis Fortune: http://allafrica.com/stories/201705080237.html