Autism Awareness Zimbabwe

29/07/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1KYRM9aaNq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

07/07/2026

www.autismawarenesszimbabwe.com. Go under Free Resources on the website

01/07/2026

Did you know that in Dubai they don’t officially refer to autistic people and others with disabilities as “disabled”? They use the term People of Determination.

Just think about that for a moment.

Words shape the way we see people. When society constantly focuses on what someone can’t do, expectations become limited. But when we recognise determination, resilience and potential, we start creating opportunities instead of barriers.

Autism doesn’t need pity. It needs understanding, acceptance and support.

Maybe it’s time we became more intentional with the language we use and, more importantly, the way we treat people. Respect costs nothing, but it can change everything.

Every person deserves to be seen for their worth, not defined by their challenges.

27/06/2026

Maswera sei? Today I had the opportunity to go to a carnival for Learning Disabilities in my local community. I learnt a few things…

26/06/2026

The autism conversation is missing something important - Hurukuro yeautism iri kushaya chinhu chakakosha.

We talk about the autistic child. We talk about diagnosis, therapy, school support, sensory needs, communication strategies. All of it necessary. All of it important.

But we rarely talk about what is happening to the family around that child.

The parent who has not slept properly in years. The mother who has become so hypervigilant that she cannot relax even when her child is calm. The father who does not know how to help and withdraws instead. The sibling who feels invisible. The grandmother who loves her grandchild deeply but has no language for what she is witnessing. The home that is either in crisis or holding its breath waiting for the next one.

Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that mothers of autistic children show cortisol profiles — the physiological measure of stress — comparable to combat soldiers. Not occasionally. Chronically. As a daily reality.

And yet the support conversation almost always begins and ends with the child.

The Family First Approach starts from a different premise.

Autistic children co-regulate through the nervous systems of the adults they trust most. Which means the state of the parent is not separate from the wellbeing of the child. It is directly connected to it.

A regulated, supported parent is not a luxury. It is the single most powerful resource an autistic child has.

This is why the work I am building through Autism Awareness Zimbabwe - and the wider vision of the Family First Autism Alliance - begins with the whole family. Not just the child.
It means courses that start with the parent’s nervous system before they ever talk about the child’s behaviour. It means resources that speak to the grandmother raising her grandchild in Bulawayo with no professional support nearby. It means tools in Shona and Ndebele because the families who need this most should not have to navigate it in a second language.

It means asking a different question. Not just “what does this child need?” but “what does everyone who loves this child need to be able to show up for them?”

Family is whoever shows up. The biological family, the found family, the carer, the teacher, the community elder, the support worker who becomes the most consistent presence in a child’s life. All of them matter. All of them need support. All of them are part of the intervention.
This is what Family First means.

And it is what Autism Awareness Zimbabwe was built on.

autismawarenesszimbabwe.com

24/06/2026

Announcement www.autismawarenesszimbabwe.com

23/06/2026

Something I have been building quietly for a long time is finally here.

Autism Awareness Zimbabwe is now live at autismawarenesszimbabwe.com

This platform was built from the inside out by a mother, not a clinician. By someone who has lived the weight of this, the isolation of it, the love that drives it, and the absolute determination to make sure other families do not have to navigate it alone.

Here is what I know to be true after years of living this:

When a child is autistic, the whole family is affected. The mother carries a level of chronic stress that research has compared to combat soldiers. The siblings adjust. The grandparents struggle to understand. The home either becomes a place of chaos or a place of calm and that difference almost always comes down to whether the adults in that home are supported.

Most autism resources focus on the child. We focus on the whole family. Because a regulated, supported parent is the single most powerful resource an autistic child has.

That is the Family First Approach. And Autism Awareness Zimbabwe is the first platform built on it.

What is on the site:

12 parent and carer courses - from processing a new diagnosis to building daily structure at home, regulating your own nervous system, navigating schools and hospitals, and courses written specifically for mothers in Zimbabwe and across Africa.

Free resources in English, Shona and Ndebele - including hospital passports, school support letters, visual communication packs, a know your rights guide, and more.

A free guide - 10 things I wish someone had told me when we first started this journey.
All of it built for Zimbabwe, for Africa, and for the diaspora carrying this experience far from home.

This is for the mother in Harare who has been told her child is cursed. For the grandmother in Bulawayo raising her grandchild and not knowing where to turn. For the parent in the UK who came here from Zimbabwe and finds that most autism support does not speak to their reality. For the father who does not know how to help. For the teacher who wants to do better. For anyone who loves an autistic person and has felt completely alone in it.

Family is whoever shows up. This is for all of them.

We are here now.

Marilyn Laiva Founder, Autism Awareness Zimbabwe Part of the Family First Autism Alliance

autismawarenesszimbabwe.com

16/05/2026

Hello ladies.

(Living in Uk and navigating Autism)

The author of these 2 books reached out to me to share some of the insights into navigating Autism in Uk. Please feel free to check her books out. The links are below:

“I hope you don’t mind me reaching out. I’m an author and parent carer, and I’ve recently published two novels that follow a group of SEND parents navigating the system with all the humour, exhaustion, resilience and fierce solidarity that so many families will recognise.

The first book, nonSENse, was written to help parents feel seen, and to offer professionals a window into the emotional reality that sits behind the paperwork. It’s fiction, but it’s rooted in lived experience, the kind that rarely makes it into official reports.

The second book, Let’s Talk Some SENse, continues the journey, exploring what happens when families are pushed to the brink by a system that still expects them to bend, stretch and somehow stay standing. It looks at the emotional labour behind every form, meeting and tribunal, as well as the friendships, dark humour and stubborn hope that keep parents going.

If you think these stories might resonate with the families or colleagues you support, you can find them here:

nonSENse: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GHSRHWS3
Let’s Talk Some SENse: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Talk-Some-SENse-fighting-ebook/dp/B0GSX1MF9Q/. “

Penny loses her son in a supermarket for thirty terrifying seconds. That’s all it takes for her new life in Kelstow to fall apart. She didn’t choose the move. She didn’t choose the city. And she certainly didn’t choose the way it overwhelms her autistic son from the moment they arrive. One s...