It’s the joy of every mother to hold their bundle of joy in their hands… it’s also the joy of every parent to provide a quality life for their children from childhood to adulthood.

Do you realise the pain any parent can undergo after celebrating their bundles of joy, to later discover they are different from the other children - meaning that they have a certain disability that makes them special from the rest – and delay in communication, lack of social interaction are among the signs that describe that a child is autisic.

Autism as described by doctors is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain, which affects social communication, interaction, restricted or repetitive behaviours or interests.

In other words, autism is a diverse condition whose main cause has not yet been discovered - where according to the research, it affects more boys than girls.

Children living with autism require special attention and care since they are unable to carry out different tasks by themselves. Their guardians or parents undergo through a lot for them to raise these kids just like any other kid, incurring a lot of costs since they require special attention.

St. Abigeals Learning and Development Center is a school located in Ndatani, Utawala, Machakos County that deals with autistic children.

Seraphine Atieno who owns this school, narrates her journey at St. Abigeals to this far and why she started this school which has been in operation for the last five years.

“I started this school because I noticed that these kids have got much more to deliver yet they get inadequate time with the rest,” said Seraphine.

According to her, the government needs to give special attention to these children. She adds that from her institution, no government intervention is recognised thus leading to the parents bearing all the expenses in order to keep them going.

Managing these children calls for a lot of compassion and care - not only the special attention but also love for them that drives one into maintaining them.

Egla Igado is one of the staff at St. Abigaels and she speaks on how the journey is and what she handles on a daily basis.

“We coach these children by training them daily activities for example, bathing, toileting, feeding and other activities for survival. We also use behaviour modification, train them means of communication both verbally and non-verbally as well as use of gestures” she explained.                                         

A parent with an autistic child has to go through a lot in order to raise these children. Faith Makenzi, locally known as Mama Wayne, is one of these parents and she gives her story, inclusive of the expenses incurred to meet all the needs.

“At the age of three months is when I discovered that Wayne is autistic simply because he couldn’t maintain eye contact with me while I was breastfeeding him and after medical check-ups it was confirmed that Wyane is autistic,” said Makenzi.

Makenzi added that in order to raise these children,it calls for both parents to cooperate so as to meet their needs. As a mother of an autistic child, she had to blame herself at first when she was informed that her baby was autistic - but through co-parenting, she ended up accepting the situation of her baby.

“When it was confirmed that my child is autistic, I was really ashamed - asking myself how my child can be autistic and not like the other children,” she stated.

Autistic children need a lot of support, compassion and care and constant observation as most of them aren’t aware of harm hence end up hurting themselves immensely.

Health experts emphasise on the importance of paying special attention to these children in order to ensure they live normally just like any other persons.

Keren Makari, is an occupational therapist who educates us more on autism - the signs, management and care. Delay in speech development, lack of eye contact and social development are the possible signs of autism,” said Makari.

She also added that a special diet is required for these children, a meal that has to be fully balanced. “We have seen results when you take out sugar intake, which goes further picking out gluten and casein,” she explained.