Amani’s Story: A Room with a View

I am Amani, and I have just turned 12 years old. I have severe Autism, PICA (eating non-edible items), severe learning difficulties, anxiety, OCD, sensory processing difficulties, and hypermobility. I use an iPad to communicate my needs as I cannot speak. My mum supports me with my daily life. I am very obsessed with food and have recently gained a lot of weight. My parents want to make my home a safer place for my behaviour and help me gain the right facilities in my home, where I can learn, play, and develop functional living skills. I have big dreams of building on my skills and am a very talented mathematician.

Message from Amani's Parents

We dream of giving Amani the best chance in life and the opportunity to thrive and develop just like her peers. Amani is our youngest of four, and we are dedicated to giving her the same opportunities as her siblings, which she deserves from us. After receiving her diagnosis at the age of 3, we learned that there was nothing available through the NHS or the education system that could meet her needs.

Amani is now fiercely intelligent and highly motivated to achieve, and she will not let her disabilities get in the way, but she needs a suitable environment to enable her to do so. Amani requires tailored teaching and treatment, including daily occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. When Amani was diagnosed at age 3 with Autism, we made the decision to provide her with an intensive teaching and treatment programme to help her overcome her difficulties so she can one day live a life of some independence and reach her full potential. Amani is fully home-educated with 1:1 tutors.

She requires a suitable indoor workroom, playroom, and sensory area (outbuilding) to learn and develop her functional living skills. Amani needs a space away from the main house, where she can thrive and learn. This differentiation between her learning environment and her home environment would help reduce her food-based behaviours and give her a space she can almost call ‘school’. Having this separation would help her feel more included, like her peers who attend school in a dedicated space.

Currently, Amani’s learning space is our dining room, and this project would allow her to have her home back. At the end of the school day, she could return to the house, which would feel more like home again. This would also help reduce her anxiety and behaviours, as the kitchen currently triggers significant behaviours and meltdowns due to her food obsession.

We also dream of creating a safe garden for Amani to enjoy and use for physical exercise, allowing her to balance exercise with the freedom to play. Unfortunately, our older garden has become unsafe for her to use, as it has been difficult to maintain over the years.

Please help us create this vital, life-changing space for Amani. This truly will be a "room with a view" for her future. We deeply appreciate any support you can give in helping Amani reach her dreams.

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects. If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.