AutismUAE | Abez sez Assalamualaikum!

Islam, Autism, Mom-ism.

Really Oughtta be a National Holiday…

Alhamdulillah, our office has finally been moved into the premises of the larger organisation that we are joining. It’s a real office. With real people. And when you’re me, every day is Take Your Toddler to Work Day! I think Musfira likes it so far. We get up, have breakfast, get out of our pj’s,…

The Mother of All Mommaisms

So I went into the bathroom yesterday. I picked up a kids toothbrush and I squirted some pink, raspberry flavored, fluoride-free toothpaste on it. Then, I opened my own mouth, popped it in, and got halfway through brushing and humming the toothbrush song before I realized I was on autopilot. I laughed so hard my…

Gofundme, please?

Well, we now officially have a GoFundMe page. JazakAllahuKheiran to Mariam for setting it up. 🙂 I feel nervous and excited. But nervous. But hey, what have I got to lose? Apart from the not for profit autism intervention service that I’ve invested the last three years of my life on but Hey! Let the spamming…

A lovely update :)

AssalamuAlaikum all of you really awesome peoples. 🙂 Through the grace and mercy of Allah, which facilitates the kindness and generosity of people like you, things are looking better for AutismUAE. Not only have the comments in my last post reached almost a third of what we need (JazakAllahuKheiran, really) but Muslim Matters has also…

2.0 is not a fan of ambiguity

To make a long story short, the not-for profit autism intervention service that I founded three years ago is in danger of going under. Partly due to a long string of non-paying parents, and partly due to a chronically ill, depressed, and mentally spazztastic director. That would be me. I’m the chronically ill, currently a…

If you can’t say anything nice…

The parents of a child who made gradual but consistent progress for the year and a half my therapists worked with him left the country with an unpaid bill of 16,000 aed (that’s roughly 4,000 dollars) after promising to pay. They ignored my phone calls and emails for three months. I caught the mother out…

Bronchitis, Business Licensing, Separation Anxiety, etcetera

So I’ve been sick, the kids have been sick, the business license renewal has been held up for the last two months and two of the therapists who were ready to fly down have now withdrawn. Everything happens for a good reason. I remind myself of this not only because it’s true, but because that’s…

Because I’m the boss, applesauce.

One day, when I have a desk, I’m going to have a plaque on it, but it’s not going to say ‘Director,’ it’s going to say ‘Humanitarian Misanthropist,’ and that way they’ll know that I’m there to help kids get treatment for a fraction of the normal cost, but if they argue with me about…

I heart Islam

One of the most difficult things for me, in running AutismUAE, is trying to escape from being thanked or praised by the parents of children we help via our therapists. I don’t mind being cried on, but once people start telling me how great/awesome/cosmic I am, I really start to squirm. I feel guilty, because…

The business license should say ‘Frustrated Incorporated’

I have a day off today, Alhamdulillah. I got out of bed at noon, had two showers- one accidentally with a cup of tea, the other with the standard water- another cup of tea, a bagel, watched a Japanamation movie that I don’t know if I could ever sit through again, and I have studiously…

How’s this for an update?

I’m sitting here waiting for the next interview to begin and thought I’d actually post something. Alhamdulillah, the trip is going well. Yesterday we held a 2 1/2 hour orientation for therapists and some seniors from a local center. After that we interviewed four of them, hopped into a taxi, and then went to the…

Live from Manila…

Wow, the Philippines looks a lot like Karachi- but with more shorts and flipflops and no donkeys. 🙂 And no one even stares. Which I am amazed and impressed by. Am here for one and a half more days of interviews and meetings, but I’ll try to update tomorrow if I can. 🙂

Y’all are invited!

Treading water, I think

The Mad Hatter’s advice was to begin from the beginning, but if you’re not sure where things began, then sometimes it’s best to jump right in to the middle. So we’re in week three of real-time operations, we’re processing contracts and visas for three more therapists and trying to juggle parent meetings, the waiting list,…

Busy in wonderful ways :)

Alhamdulillah, we have our first two therapists starting with the first five families who will be sharing their time. Tomorrow I have three meetings in two separate emirates to collect all the contracts and make it all official. Please make dua that Allah make this venture a sadqa-jaariya- a blessing in this life and the next, through…

Why I feel sorry for Spiderman

So there are special needs school in Bahrain that do a wonderful job of catering to children with Down’s Syndrome and CP, but not a single ABA therapy center for children with autism on the whole island. There is one doctor qualified to diagnose for autism, but he doesn’t, because he feels he is cheating…

Look out, Bahrain!

Leaving tomorrow morning for Bahrain. Here’s why- Alhamdulillah. 🙂

4am: What, us? Nocturnal?

On the bright side, if Khalid didn’t wake up in the middle of the night, I might never blog. On the annoying side, it’s 4 in the morning and he’s been up since 1:30, jumping, rolling, climbing, and lavishing WWF-style affection (half-nelsons, not pandas) on his stubborn “WE ARE STAYING IN BED!” momma. This is…

Choo-choo?

Once upon a time there was a little engine who thought it could. And one day it decided to take on a few extra cars and take them over a big hill. It started out nice and slow and was chugging along (I think I can, I think I can!) and it slid back a…

A culmination of hope and fear- AutismUAE.com

I’m about to do one of the scariest things I have done in my entire life. On purpose I mean. I’m scraping together all my savings, which isn’t much and is quite slow to recover, and I am buying a business license. I am opening a business to help provide affordable autism therapy and…