Please help Jakob and Brandon with their therapy.

Jakob and Brandon are brothers on opposite ends of the autism spectrum. They need help to continue

their therapy. The government has cut funding to their programs, and combined, their family need

$61,000 annually to provide their therapy, and ensure they don’t regress from the considerable progress

that they have achieved through therapy. Autism does not begin and end but is something that is

lifelong. Help these brothers live with autism the best way they can, and help their family ensure the

best outcome for them possible.

Read their story through their mother’s eyes:

When Jakob was 4 years old, we knew that something was different. There were little things along the

way, like that he wouldn’t go into the bathtub until the foam letters were perfectly not touching each

other in the bubbles, everything had to be a certain way, or he became distressed. When he was 1 year

old, he was too afraid to even enter a wedding reception hall: the sounds and people were too

overwhelming. He didn’t understand how to play with other children. He didn’t understand how to

socialize or understand when someone was teasing or joking. Jakob would have a hard time before if we

even changed the bedsheets, or the couch cover.

We discovered when Jakob was 4 years old, that he was on the autism spectrum, and he started having

therapy. Jakob has come a long way since starting therapy, but he still needs help. He still has social

anxiety. He still needs help to understand what he needs to do to in order to accomplish goals.

Our journey with Jakob’s younger brother Brandon was a lot more painful, because we realized quickly

how much more help was needed. Brandon started saying a handful of words – mama, dada, tita (means

aunt), jaja for brother Jakob. However, at 2 years old, our world forever changed… All of a sudden he

stopped responding to his name. He seemed to go into his own world, and he lost all of the words that

he had learned except for dada. We knew that something was wrong. We had him assessed as at a very

young age, and he needs intensive support.

Brandon couldn’t go into any new buildings, including houses of family and friends. He would sit on the

pavement and refuse to get up because he was terrified of new places. Brandon still needed me to

bathe him, and wipe him when he goes to the toilet. I had to feed him as well, but it was only just

recently, through consistent therapy, that Brandon learned to feed himself with a spoon. He has to feed

himself by scooping things in a big, tall bowl. He does not know how to use the fork yet. We have to help

him dress, but he can now put on his shirt when we put it in front of him. He has learned to have a little

bit of patience. He’s still scared when we go to certain places, and we have to work really hard to

prepare him for appointments. For example, to go to the dentist, he has to be sedated for dental

procedures such as cleaning, and we had to prepare him with visits within 2 weeks to get him gradually

going into the building step-by-step until we could finally get him to sit in the chair.

There has been a lot of progress, but we need ongoing therapy for both our boys. The Ford government

took $50,000 away from Brandon‘s annual funds for therapy (that’s more than half of his therapy cost!).

With Jakob, they took another $11,000 from his therapy funds. With both our boys needing therapy,

and Brandon especially needing to learn basic life skills (that are finally starting to take shape), we need

help to make sure they continue to progress. We need to cover the cost between both Jakob and

Brandon for one year, the $61,000 that was taken away. Please help us give this care to our boys.