My Inspiring Journey Hub, or ‘MIJ Hub’ is a non-profit organisation that offers academic curriculum and daily living skills catered for students, aged 2 to 30 years, with learning differences of 6 different diagnoses - namely Autism, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, Dyslexia, Down Syndrome and Global Developmental Delay.

Its inception began from the inspiring journey of its very founders, Husband and Wife Mohammad Ali Dawood and Faraliza Zainal. Both worked corporate jobs, but that was set to change when at 18 months old, their first child Ashraf was diagnosed with a rare disease called Tuberous Sclerosis. This caused Ashraf’s first epilepsy attack at the mere age of two. Frequent seizures ensued, keeping the family up at night, but their problems did not stop there.

Just a year later, Ashraf was diagnosed with autism and sensory integrated dysfunction, a condition that makes it difficult for him to feel his body’s limits. Said Mr Ali: “At one stage, he wouldn’t stop eating until he vomited. He couldn’t feel that he was full.” With a lack of true awareness and adequate support systems for children with Special Needs at the time, the pair’s parenting journey was fraught with challenges - be it in his education pathway or social life.

Mdm Fara admitted: ‘‘I was in denial for two years. I couldn’t accept it.” It wasn’t until a friend told her that God had given her Ashraf “because he knows that you are the only one who can bear and raise him”, that she finally embraced her situation, and soon sought to change their lives for the better.

She entirely gave up her corporate career and started anew, teaching herself to be a special needs educator. She threw herself into learning all about autism and how to deal with it, by taking up various short courses from behaviour management to alternative therapy. In the process, she discovered that it was movement therapy that Ashraf responded to best.