May 6 - 8, 2002
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Providing Culturally Competent Disability Services
to Persons Born in other Countries May 6 - 8, 2002 |
A Haitian mother's journey
Milorin, E.
HAPHI Haitian American Public Health
Parent/Program Coordinator
Medford, MA 02155 USA
esteem@pemiumproducts.com
Abstract
As a Haitian parent, I propose to share my personal and professional experiences of raising my young adult son with autism. I will begin the presentation with a chronology of my son's life from his early childhood years to his current situation. More spec ifically, I will talk about my role as an advocate, and how I overcame cultural barriers in this country. I learned to navigate the US educational and adult system and now teach others to do the same. I will also describe some of the challenges and the re wards of this on-going journey. For example, I will reflect upon the perception and attitudes of disability within the Haitian culture, as experienced in Haiti and the United States. I will provide specific examples of ways to achieve success for other ch ildren.