Disability awareness expo preps gather momentum

PREPARATIONS for the inaugural Disability Awareness Expo are gathering momentum with thousands of both children with disabilities and exhibitors expected to converge in Harare.

The expo on March 23 at Belgravia Sports Club under the theme: Discovering Possibilities, Celebrating Differences is being organised by Mothers of Special Heroes (MOSH) and Micheal Tinotenda Foundation.

MOSH board member William Pepukai said the expo provides a platform for people to network and exchange ideas on disability issues.

“It is high time as communities we come together to raise awareness on neurodevelopmental conditions. Being a parent, guardian or caregiver to a child with neurodevelopmental disabilities can be a tough, unexpected and abrupt lifechanging experience,” Pepukai said.

“It is against this backdrop that parents, guardians and caregivers join us at the expo with their children and learn more about how we can ensure they live better livelihood prospects. It is also a platform for networking and meeting others in similar situations and children enjoying entertainment and games. Also everyone is invited as a means to educate communities that neurodevelopmental conditions are not a curse but natural occurrences.”

About 700 000 children in Zimbabwe are living with disabilities.

“We have conditions not diseases, we may talk differently, but want to be

talked to, we may walk differently, but want to walk with. We may think and play differently, but we want to play and be included. We are all humans and we need love, hence the expo” Pepukai added.

MOSH is a trust setup in 2021 which seeks to understand and offer livelihood solutions to mothers, guardians and caregivers of children facing disabilities, especially conditions of cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome and many other neurodevelopmental disabilities.