Because of her Down syndrome disability, 19 year Australian Model Madeline Stuart is an internationally famed Model who has used and is using her disability to promote the rights of persons living with Disabilities (PWD’s) across the globe. Though she is entirely dependent on her single mum Rosanne Stuart, her disability didn’t stop her from achieving her long held dream of Modeling.
After completing their tour of cape Town, South Africa, Madeline and her mum are in Uganda to once again raise awareness about the challenges People With Disabilities (PWD’s) face. Madeline and her ever-jolly Mum had a wonderful time at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC/Entebbe Zoo) on Thursday where they met and interacted with pupils from the Entebbe Children’s Welfare School, a school that caters for Children with Disabilities.
“Madeline is an amazing girl who is deeply in love with Modeling. I feel so blessed and fortunate to have Madeline. We are in Uganda and specifically in Entebbe to raise awareness about the challenges that children who are disabled like her go through. She is my only child, my fresh and blood” Rosanne Stuart said.
She added;
I call upon parents out there with disabled children to respect, support and love them because they too have feeling. Madeline has always wanted to be a model and only started last year in November. She has been to the New York fashion week, uptown and Style Fashion week in New York, Caspian fashion week in Russia and also in Sweden. We are here for one week and thereafter we shall head to London, Alaska and Canada.
The Uganda Wildlife Education Center (Entebbe Zoo) Executive Director James Musinguzi commended the partnership between the event organizers EmbraceKulture, Modesta foundation for training UWEC staff on how to handle disabled Children who visit the Zoo.
“I would like to thank Embrace Kulture and Modesta Foundation for the training they have extended to UWEC Staff on how to handle disabled Children. We have bought wheel chairs and other transport modes like the Noah’s ark to help disabled children access and navigate easily around the Zoo. We have remodeled several exhibit and approach areas to enable disabled children view the animals well” Musinguzi stated.
Musinguzi also received a certificate of Recognition from Madeline Stuart recognizing UWEC as the first sensory friendly zoo in Africa.
Christa Preston the Embrace Kulture Executive Director hailed UWEC for supporting programs aimed at raising awareness about disability and sensory processing disorders. She said that Embrace Kulture a Community Based Organization in Entebbe mainly focuses on making Entebbe an all inclusive community for all kids living with disabilities.
The event was attended by the Entebbe Municipality Deputy Speaker Modesta Tezityabiiri.
