My Goals… Day #25 NHBPM

Day # 25 NHBPM, I chose to write about “How have your goals as a patient / advocate / person evolved?”.

When I started my blog, I had only a few goals that I wanted to focus on. Reaching out to the community, making them understand what is autism about, and how wrong it is to discriminate against these children and their parents. I wanted the community get together to reach out to these families, so they may not be isolated, and they may have a close to normal life.

I wanted parents of ASD kids  not to hide their children from a public eye, so those deserving children can reach their full potential.

I wanted to share latest researches, new therapy or medical interventions that can potentially help to make lives better for the autistic children as well as their families. I tried to reach out to the typical siblings, who I am still thinking of hidden casualties in some cases.

Many told me, it is a noble cause, but it will not be easy. In Muslim society, even if we are living in the west, the cultural stigma can hinder or make it impossible everything I try to do.

Well, they were  wrong. We are all parents here with autistic children, and we want the best for these kids. We have to tackle the every day hassle of all the things autism throws at us, and we have to struggle to keep  clear mind regards to cultural and community issues that doesn’t want to accept us or our children.

Many times I received private emails from all over the world from people who wanted to remain anonymous, but wanted to talk about issues in their lives. My primary goal was to be there for these individuals, and help them through these difficulties by encouraging them, or giving helpful links so they may be able to help their children regardless the local resources not being readily available.

I was able to connect people to one another in their region, so they can hep each other and create an effective support system. Slowly, our religious leaders started to get involved as well, and recognize the importance of helping these families.

My goal was small, and I understood that I can not rush to achieve  them, and slowly I seen progress in many ways. I can see more blogs about autism in Muslim communities, I can see more Muslims reaching out to the affected families, I can see steps being made to help and to be aware.

I can not take credit for all these improvements, by I like to think that I may have a little piece to contribute to spread awareness about autism in the Muslim community.

During these years of working on helping the community to educate themselves about this disorder, made me to be a more  tolerant person. I was able to learn about different cultures, and develop a strategy that helped me to be more effective approaching this matter across borders.

Fighting for a cause doesn’t just mean that we help others, make awareness and spread understanding. In the process one may realize their true calling and help to see the goodness in everything. Persistence, dedication and humility  are all part of evolving our goals, our personality and our true identity.