Kutlwelo Mariri ready to diffuse special needs children time-bomb

 

kutlwelo

Without sufficient funding and a more coherent approach, the future of children with special needs is bleak according to Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and Audiologist and founder of Ambrose Academy, Kutlwelo Mariri. She was one of the eighteen young leaders from Botswana who flew out to the US recently to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship programme of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Here she discusses her experience and what she has learnt through the programme. Why did you apply for Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) Program 2018? As a person you need professional and development growth so this was opportunity for me to go and appreciate how far I have contributed with the field of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology in my country, to learn about the business acumen of making services sustainable and to see what’s next. So since I heard how rich the Business and Entrepreneur track was I believed I should apply and I really got more than what I ever bargained for. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. What does it takes to be Mandela Washington Fellow? It takes a person who has the willingness to change the status quo as well as to care about improving the lives of people. In a nutshell you should be a visionary. I think for last year there was about 37 000 applications and total selection been 700 in Africa as a whole. We were only 18 from Botswana and I was privileged to be part of the Botswana MWF 2018. What did it mean for you to be selected? You know Rachel, God’s timing is always the best and we never understand it. I have been meaning to apply but our organisation was not ready for me to go away for 7 weeks so this time I applied and was selected this was perfect timing for me as well as our organisation. For example from the professional side of things we needed to re -evaluate our journey and reposition ourselves to continue being of value to the patients and to special needs children as well as introducing PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE. One of our major concerns is that many children are delayed in speech and language, in fine and gross motor skills simply because of lack of stimulation if we do not attend to this, the number of special needs kids will continue to rise. So as Ambrose Academy we need to address this issue like yesterday otherwise we are sitting on a time bomb. Where were you placed? I was placed in a very intensive programme for 7 weeks in University of Austin, Texas under the programme of leadership headed by Professor John Dogget. From the very first day, he told us his intent was not to make us into himself, rather to make sure we graduate from the programme as people who will go and make a difference in our countries and make Africa what it needs to be. He has deep care for Africa and I feel like I owe it to him to make sure whatever I have learnt I better myself and my people. The course covered main areas of leadership, business, critical thinking, self care and this year’s Mandela Theme of Servant Leadership. So how do the following areas apply in your profession; Leadership-As you know the profession of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology is relatively a new profession in our country we still have a long way to go. However what came from the MWF 2018 was that do it in phases, appreciate where you are, where you need to go and keep pivoting until you get at your destiny. Be willing to get advice and be eager to learn so that you keep up with latest trends in your field and NEVER compromising QUALITY. Also care about humanity and the people you serve as much as acknowledging that some will NEVER be happy with your services no matter how much you try but make peace with that. This really resonated with me very well I always see possibilities with my adult patients and special needs children however one thing that used to hurt me is seeing a parent with buying power not affording their child that opportunity and always complaining about this and that no matter how much I tried. Business Acumen-Please allow me to generalise in Botswana , there is perception that Health should be FREE even in private sector while its OKAY to pay it in South Africa for example and that has robbed us from having research institutes because research is expensive. In most cases I struggled so much with my patients wanting discount of everything which then makes it impossible to pay monthly expenditure like the rentals and salaries of the personnel. So I heard in all the 7 weeks that passion alone won’t pay bills every day. Prof Doggett made sure we get that. He summarised it like government, private sector even Non Government Organaisations need funds to run. So it doesn’t matter what for, whether for rehabilitation to improve, we need funds to make it first class like in other countries. So sustainability comes in here; if one can’t pay for running cost then they simply face closure. Self care-Everyone who is in business will attest that as a founder or pioneer of any project you work non-stop with absolutely no time to smell the coffee. This really puts one at risk for cardio vascular diseases and burn out as all they do is work, work and work. However I have learnt to appreciate that one needs to take care of oneself before taking care of other people. All I have been doing is work, work and work. I used to love baking and for the past 7 years I never did it so at least now I have started to learn again, hehehe maybe this festive season I will bake for my family ….. Servant Leadership-I believe as Africans we have the custom for servant leadership it comes natural to us to care about each other even those in the community however we have diluted this if not lost it. That is why we have concept such as Kgomo ya Mafisa or every child is yours …… Every child is yours really hit me home when my team and I saw the need to establish a trust that can raise awareness about special needs children or teach the public about rehabilitation it was a way of giving back…..there is so much stigma but the question what do we do about it? Do we advocate for these kids or we turn a blind eye we concluded that we needed to advocate so that whether in government, private sector or NGOs our people can be helped. But our many challenges are that there is no volunteerism anymore, we only care once it hits home and by that time there is nothing much you can do because now when you advocate you fear people will say Oh you are only doing it now because you are going through it even though I personally believe it’s never too late to start. You touched on the general expectation by most people for free medical/specialist services and you raised valid points. But, what of special needs children coming from underprivileged backgrounds? Are we saying they are doomed because their parents can’t afford specialist services at Ambrose Academy for example? Oh my God Rachel, this is one area that hurts me the most, it’s just that my hands are tied. You know we are very far from assisting these children. I always say if we the literate ones, with buying power and with so much exposure; we don’t see the value of investing in our children ‘s rehabilitation services or prevention is better than cure programmes what is the possibility of having these services extended to those in deep rural areas? Because once we get it then we will extend it to them and fundraise for them? Until then I don’t know what will happen, we need brave people to stand up and help this situation especially policy makers. Why can’t you at Ambrose Academy for example extend these services to these children especially that I always hear parents particularly those with autistic children talk about the great improvements they notice in the children once they start at school? Well we have always asked to be subsidised and the answer we get is that it’s not in the government policy. However NORMAL developing children can be sponsored in private institutions and that’s OKAY BUT FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS WE would rather give them P300 MONTHLY. I mean if we don’t do anything now can we ever sponsor them in universities while they are not rehabilitated? No ways. I have asked government since it used to sponsor these children in South Africa, why can’t the sponsorship be extended to services like ours? All the international visitors are saying why government is not assisting your efforts? Who is government Rachel? It’s the people working in government. What they do is to find 100 reasons why they can’t sponsor children in our school even though they can see with their own eyes how we have improved the lives of these children. The only thing to do I guess is to continue advocating for all these children until Policy Makers hear us, and realise that only talking about how we want to improve special needs children lives it will NEVER happen unless we make it possible for them through enabling policies and implementation not just talk. Share some of outstanding moments of your time in the US One of the aha!moments I had was during an assignment I had to write my obituary and read it to the audience. It was so intense and very emotional to a point where Prof John kept saying remember guys you are not dead but we couldn’t help crying because it included how you have empowered your family and how your people will remember you by the sacrifice you made for your country. Did you assist your patients and the children in Ambrose Academy simply because it’s the right thing to do or you sabotaged people you were serving? One thing I really wish for my country is for us to create opportunities for others, I normally say if you go to most organisations for assistance the norm in Botswana is that they will tell you 100 things why it can’t work instead of 100 ways to make it work. However in USA they are willing to solve problems for the benefit of others. Imagine if we had that attitude in Botswana. The whole experience was eye opening and I will like to encourage all young people to apply for it so that they can go and learn from those who are ahead of us. We need to see the possibilities so that our dream for our country becomes even more brighter and we can indeed tell our African stories instead of others telling them for us. Is there anything we can learn from the healthcare system of the US? Health is expensive! I think this is the first step we need to appreciate in Botswana, running away from this breaks my heart. Investing in experts, resources and research is costly; do we have health research units? That’s the only way we can improve our health system. We do not need to re-invent the wheel it’s already invented by those who are ahead of us. All we need to do is work towards that. Nowadays when people are hospitalised I hear them saying I know I am going to die, hospitals should save lives not become places of NO HOPE. We need to change that. What does the future hold for you personally and Ambrose Academy? The future is exciting MWF2018 has increased my network where I can learn from others and continue to improve myself. I was kind of losing hope with all the efforts that I have tried but now I have been ignited. As Ambrose Academy we will continue to raise the bar and ensure we remain relevant to bring value to Ambrose Academy children, even all other children in this country. We will soldier on and leave no stone unturned until our voice is heard…… GIVE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS AN OPPORTUNITY THEY ALSO DESERVE TO HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE THEY ARE NOT DOOMED …..