AUTISM EKASI
What does your company do?
We support children on the autism spectrum
What is your biggest success?
Every event is an an achievement but the greatest was having different stakeholders sharing one platform at our Parent Empowerment Workshop. We had SARS explaining the the different claims which we did not even know existed. We had SASSA explaining the different grants available. Dept of Social Development, parents were not even aware of food parcels. Dept of Education explaining school placement process. Parents had never had a session like this before. It opened doors for invites to other platforms.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Our biggest hurdle to trying to get a venue to house children with autism. We were once kicked out of the place we used. When the owner found out that our children were autistic, she gave us two weeks notice to vacate. We have Knocked on so many doors but the stigma of autism is here to stay. So many unused schools which we can use but they are now a sleep den for drug addicts. Our govt has failed autism and we have no where to go. We renovated an outbuilding which we are using. Those are some of the challenges we face
