Family launches ‘gratitude stone’ campaign to stress inclusion
Kimia Mackay is a Year 3 student of The Aquila School in The Villa in Dubai. An extremely popular student, she has a wide circle of friends. No surprises there, you might think, as she has a happy face with an infectious smile.
But talk to her and she won’t reply. She is vocal alright, but she is non-verbal. She is earnest and effusive, but expression as the world knows it eludes her.
As her mother Souzie Mackay explains, Kimia is a “happy baby”, suffering from a rare genetic disorder called the Happy Puppet Syndrome. Also called the Angelman Syndrome, it is a chromosome defect that causes acute learning difficulties besides issues with speech, movement and coordination.
Read the full story in Gulf News here.