KATHERINA says these are some of the world’s most beautiful and precious children. All they need is more love as their best medicine.

This being the day and the month set aside by the world to reflect and contemplate on this important issue of autism facing children and adults, Katherina Roshana, Miss Guyana Universe and Miss India Guyana 2013, and now media Woman of Substance Awardee, places emphasis on service and education of these fantastic personalities and minds, which are so much misunderstood, by family, friends and society in general.

The beauty queen is particularly proud that she is able to highlight to the nation and the Caribbean that this is merely a neurological disorder, which affects behaviour and create a slow assimilation and processing of information.

It saddens her that people; in Guyana, particularly the country areas, in which some families consider this as a mental disorder, and sometimes such children are chained to beds or pens and sometimes beaten, because some sectors of our society think that the children are possessed by evil, which needs to be beaten out.

Katherina stresses that these children with the neurological impairment, at times their speech may not be as clear as others. But when one gets close to them, and gives them the love and attention they deserve, they become positive and react with enormous affection, and she emphasises that love is the cure for all illness.

Parents need to just show them more love, because a bit more attention could do wonders for their mental and spiritual development. The unfortunate tendency for some is to leave them behind and push those with what is considered normal traits.

Katherina Roshana is the Ambassador and spokesperson of the Step by Step School for Autistic Children, but she works for all children and persons who face this difficulty, and even other disabilities. She says she will go anywhere and represent all and any institution, governmental and non-governmental, dedicated to their education, training and general uplift, inclusive of the education of families, relatives and the nation in general.

Miss Guyana Universe can be contacted via Facebook on Katherina Roshana, Georgetown, Guyana, or at her official secretariat, Miss Guyana Universe at 172 Light and Charlotte Streets, Bourda, Georgetown, through her Personal Assistant AnnMarie on telephone: 226-7541, or 226-0168.

Persons wishing an autographed postcard of the Guyana’s Multi-Queen and Lady of Substance, may contact these numbers through Ann Marie, request on Facebook or write the Secretariat and one will be mailed to them. A digital copy can also be sent via the internet.
By Alex Wayne