Inclusive Book Launch Event Spotlights  Special Needs Children

Vanessa Obioha 

Promoting inclusivity and highlighting the power of personal stories, disability inclusion advocate and Founder of Diary of a Special Needs Mom Initiative, Bukola Ayinde launched three thought-provoking books recently at The Learning Place, Lekki, Lagos. 

Two of the books —’My Name is Nimi’, and ‘Nimi’s Birthday Party’ — chronicled the inspiring journey of her daughter Oluwalonimi living with cerebral palsy, and the third, The Gods Are Strange, celebrated the importance of adopting inclusivity and celebrating diversity.

The well-attended launch hosted close friends and family to an afternoon of discussion around children with disabilities, and better routes to take for their inclusion in society. The event featured spoken word poetry, as well as book reviews from Mitchel Adegbola, a lecturer at the University of Lagos; and Tonye Faloughi, a creative entrepreneur. 

“So I realised that children learn from play. One of my daughters, if you are getting her to read a storybook, she may not want to read it. But if she’s going to turn it into a play, she will have to internalise what she’s reading,” Ayinde explained the concept of ‘TGAS’. 

‘TGAS’ is a stage play that exemplifies the complementary roles of diversity and inclusivity toward nation-building through the adventures of a fearless warrior, a talented blind, and an exceptional dancer to restore the lost glory of the Odudu kingdom. Through a strategic collaboration with the Goethe Institute, the play has been performed by a theatre group in Jos, and at Corona Secondary School, Agbara. 

Although released in 2018, ‘MNIN’ was relaunched. It has been translated into six different languages: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Pidgin English, French, and German. 

“When I realised that all the different sectors in the community were reluctant in partnering with this course, I decided to take another angle to it, which is, to work with children, to be able to tell them about persons with disability and for them to understand it as a medical condition. For them to be able to understand that inclusion is the future for them, ” Ayinde said. 

‘NBP’ is a play presented as a guidebook to include special needs children at social gatherings. Ayinde said that she ran a three-month-long experiment by inquiring from other abled children on ways to achieve inclusion.

Ayinde aims to educate and engage young people about disabilities and the importance of inclusion in enhancing the lives of individuals with special needs.

Caption: 

Pemi, Bukola, Nimi, Lawrence Ayinde at the book launch recently held in Lagos