Today, we join the international community in marking the World Autism Awareness Day. The rallying call ‘Empowering Women and Girls with Autism’ puts a spot light on the challenges experienced by women and girls. It offers us a critical opportunity to reflect on the progress we are making as communities, as a country and as a global village in protecting the rights of people living with Autism.
This years theme urges us to raise global and national awareness about the persistent barriers our women and girls with autism face.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability characterised by among others: impaired social and communication skills, behavioural challenges, repetitive behaviour, and inability to interact with one’s environment.
In Kenya, increased conversations on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have encouraged more parents and healthcare workers to identify symptoms and seek timely intervention programs.
More children have access to the Government’s Educational Assessment and Resource Centers countrywide, thus increasing understanding and acceptance of the condition. This has been made possible thanks to concerted multi-institutional efforts to increase awareness, early detection and improved diagnostic services.
These are milestones we can be proud of, but we must apply better diagnostic tools and increase resources for early detection. We must also mitigate against diagnostic methods that overlook and/or ignore symptoms of women and girls, which potentially exposes them to gender bias and further entrenches gender inequality and various forms of gender based violence.
Living with Autism Spectrum Disorder is difficult to cope with. I am aware of the myriad of challenges that persons with Autism and their families undergo in their daily living.
So today, I urge us to learn to value and appreciate the hopes, aspirations and dreams of all persons with any form of disability. Let us celebrate the fundamental dignity and beauty of all human life, in all its diversity.
The new Beyond Zero Strategic Framework 2018 -2022 advocates for social inclusion for all. It prioritises increased advocacy for children living with disability and equal access to health and education services. It calls for stronger partnerships, greater investment and better, more advanced methods of collecting data to feed into the policies we form.
As always, our work will require stepping up our joint efforts; we all have a role to play.
On my part, I remain committed to championing the rights of all children in Kenya.-ENDS
First Lady of Kenya, Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta.