SCRF23: Diplomat Francisca Méndez calls for more sensitivity and information on autism
Francisca Méndez, ambassador and permanent representative of the Mexican Mission to the United Nations and International Organisations in Geneva, is currently at the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival (SCRF23) to present her first book, Why Fer doesn't want to grow up, published by Penguin Randon House. And that's where he told his story to Atalayar.
This book, in which she delves into the world of autism through her own experience, takes as its title the question that her daughter Francisquita, then three years old, asked her when she noticed that something was not right with her brother. They were in Budapest, she remembers, and despite the time elapsed, about twenty-five years, she does not forget the depth of the question, the feeling of that little girl who felt that Fer was different.
Francisca Méndez explains that it was a very hard moment when she found out that her little boy was autistic; first, because there is not enough information about autism; second, because there was and still is a lack of tolerance, empathy and inclusion systems. "You face an unknown world and there is a lot of loneliness. You feel very lonely as a mother and as a family".
This book, presented a year ago in Spanish at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in the Sharjah pavilion, which was the guest of honour, now arrives at this festival translated into Arabic and with beautiful illustrations by the Mexican artist Enrique Torralba.
Why did it take you so long to write this book? There is no concrete answer. Méndez says that "it is a book of the heart" and that perhaps the question could be: "Why did it come about when it did? I might as well never have written it at all," she says. The fact is, says the diplomat, that she always thought about doing something, because at the beginning is when the worst moments, the most difficult ones, happen, "so I started to think about how I could help other families in the face of such a strong, vital experience". The idea of wanting to help was there, but what there wasn't was time. Time that in the end did arrive, and here are the 15 stories that speak of day-to-day life with Fer, of her daily life. In these pages "you will find stories that will help families not to feel so alone, so that they know what to do", says the ambassador.
Families must not give up
Loneliness, incomprehension, marginalisation, discrimination. The way is not easy, because these words are the ones chosen by the writer to define how parents with a child with autism feel and what they find. But no, let's not close the doors or fall into pessimism. Méndez, despite acknowledging the stress suffered by families, the need to create a greater awareness, the lack of information as well as means or services... she also talks about hope, resilience, learning, going on... "I say to the families that they should never accept a no, never; because there is a way, although there is a lot to do, especially in the real integration of people with autism, it is possible, yes it is possible. Don't give up, that's what I want to tell them", she says strongly.
And this is the message she is conveying on her return to Sharjah, an emirate she knows well, as she was Mexico's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates for five years. With her beautiful book ¿Por qué Fer no quiere crecer? under her arm, the writer, the mother, is giving presentations, talks, meetings in schools... "it's a very nice experience, this festival has a great cultural reach in the United Arab Emirates, they know how to promote reading very well and they do it in a spectacular way".
Social inclusion
His diplomatic career has taken him from one country to another, places where he has been able to see the differences that exist on the issue of autism, but which can be summed up in the existence of more or less services. "The problem is global, and it is inclusion", he assures. His book has a clear purpose: to visualise the need to generate mechanisms for the inclusion of people with autism.
What would you ask for at an institutional level and from an educational point of view? His answer is straightforward. He asks for more services, but, mainly, that families are understood; and in education, that professionals are provided with the necessary tools to deal with these children, "sometimes, it is very difficult for them, they don't know how to act". This has been his debate with schools and teachers, "no one is doing anyone a favour, we all learn, because we all have to fit in this world and in this society, which is the only one we have".
More sensitivity, more information.