Wednesday 4 June 2014

Let's do lunch!

In western countries kids go to school to learn, but in some places kids go to school just to get lunch. Often it is the only meal they get. In Kenya there is a school in a slum where that happens. Sewerage even flows throughout their classroom. Magnificent Kid, Luca Berardi has already donated his first hard earned $2000 to make sure the children could be fed for over a month, and now he's helping out again. This time he's collecting books for the school in the hope that the kids will also be motivated to learn as well as eat.

When we live in countries where education is seen as a right, we complain about the stupidest things (called 1st world problems) but really we need to be a whole lot more connected to our brothers and sisters in other places who are struggling to literally stay alive each day. Thank you Luca for all that you do. You are an amazing superhero!


Tuesday 3 June 2014

Does autism make you magnificent?

I train people to understand autism and I often hear about the extremely gifted people with autism. There are some incredible people with autism who have tapped into that brilliant part of their mind and excel in one or some areas. There is a beautiful story of an autistic man who took a 20 minute helicopter ride over New York then drew (in pen) the entire city scape perfectly. Wow!!!

I'm not convinced that we need to put pressure on our autistic friends to be extremely gifted and to expect them to live up to that pressure. But what I do know is that autism does not need to be a deficit or be seen as a deficit. It really is just different. What does bother me is when people impose expectations on autistic people to 'fit in'. I wish people would realise how hard it is for a person with autism to 'fit in'.

Imagine a world where we accept that a man's brain and a woman's brain are completely different and in addition to those two we have a third brain - the autistic brain. Wow!! Imagine what we could all learn from each other?

Magnificent Kid, Dani Bowman not only started and runs an animation company employing people with autism, but she is also an artist. Her detail is impeccable. Magnificent Kid, Avalon Theisen also has autism and she too is an artist.



Look at these pics, admire them, and never let anybody tell you that autism is less. As Temple Grandin says... different not less.

So does autism make you magnificent? No, because EVERYBODY is magnificent!

Love and blessings,
Kerryn