A help cry from a single mother to a disabled child raised a mass range of awareness including the local MP for Southgate, Bambos Charalambous.
Fighting for establishing a safe and secure environment for her 16 year old disabled kid, mother Asya Coşkun talked to Londra Gazete with official documents depicting her struggle to maintain fixings to be done at her house, given a chain of failures have cropped up in her bathroom and kitchen. Talking to Londra Gazete, Ms Coşkun and her daughter Dilan Guldibi told their story on their fight with the local council and social services. Dilan said:
“Since the age of three, my brother (Efkan Guldibi) was diagnosed with Autism. Efkan is now sixteen. My mum (Asya Coskun) and I always managed to cope, adapt, and learn new things to be put in place for Efkan. Us a family we love to travel aboard and around the UK, love the seaside and always love to be outside.
“Everything change since the 28th March. With a person with autism, change is a major event that can impact all aspects of everyday life. This is what happen to Efkan, the massive changes that has brought him nearby death, hopeless moment and Efkan’s life being in danger. Our house at The Fairway, Southgate N14 4PB went under vast amounts of repair. The shower room was made from Efkan; Efkan loves the water. The shower pump was broken. There were gigantic amounts of water leaking from the kitchen. This then caused an impact to the kitchen celling, allowing the celling to be broken. Efkan didn’t want to go into the house at all, Efkan ran away from home (jumping over the fence and though the windows) he didn’t understand what was going on. We have lived in this house for over eight years and everything been adapted for him. The consequence of these small aspects not getting fixed from 28th March until now, resulted to Efkan being uncontrollable (from ripped books, destroying the house, climbing everywhere, very bad moods and always being hyperactive). This is not Efkan but this is what change causing for an autistic person. For the first time ever, we contracted Cheviots Social Services to help us. There are many written documents and phones call made to Enfield Homes and Cheviots but nothing changed.”
“I DIDN’T ASK FOR MY KID TO BE DISABLED”
Talking about her struggle to get hold of the local council for results, mother Coşkun said that once staff members from social services asked her to “empathise” with the busy schedules of the system however her defence was strong.
“I did not ask my kid to be disabled but those people who work at the NHS, Government, Social Services and local councils have voluntarily picked those careers – it is that simple. No one can expect me to empathize with staff members.”
“In addition to what happened with our house, in the aftermath of all this, due to the fact that my son did not want to get in our house any longer given the circumstances, instead of running maintenance works in our house, my son was taken away from me. It is unbelievable, all we wanted was our house to be repaired, just because my son’s behaviours changed due to the conditions the system decided to him from me instead of doing what they should have done”
Ms Coşkun also stated incidents in which she was asked if the family would want to relocate to Manchester, which she referred to as an act of “madness”.
CHARALAMBOUS: “I WILL DO ALL I CAN”
Talking to Bambos Charalambous MP for Southgate, Asya Coşkun and Dilan Güldibi raised their issues on a face-to-face surgery in North London, in which MP Charalambous also acknowledged the suffering of the family and promised to follow the case and do everything he can by starting to get in touch with Enfield Council.
The family is now fighting for getting the required fixings to be made in their house and therefore get Efkan back from the carehouse he has been relocated. The family also uses the hashtag “Save Efkan Save All” to raise awareness.
