Who am I? 

I'm a mother, whose first language is not English. I am fighting for the right to have a family life with my autistic daughter and speak our mother tongue.

Summary 

I have a daughter who has autism and learning disabilities. Recently the care company who support her and the authority funding her care applied to court to supervise all contact with our daughter and for all communication to be predominately in English. However English is a second language for us.

This means two staff follow us wherever we go with our daughter and we can only allowed legally to say a few words in our native language . My daughter was born in my country of origin. We moved to England when she was a young girl.  

My husband struggles to express himself in English, which means that he is now not able to speak fluently to our daughter. My husband and I are not allowed to speak  our first language to each other in front of our daughter.

Background to my case 

Six years ago when my daughter was 16 years old, she was sectioned and placed in a hospital a long way from home. We had to fight to get our daughter out of hospital and finally she moved into supported living in 2018 . Due to her disabilities she needs support from carers 24 hours a day in her own home.

The court has decided that my daughter should continue to live apart from us. She is only allowed to visit our home on certain days. We love our daughter unconditionally and she loves coming home. Whilst the majority of my conversations with my daughter were in English we use a mixture of English and our first language at home. 

Why we need your support? 

Please donate and help me fight to let us speak in our mother tongue and be able to have quality time with our daughter. There is a further court hearing in September. The funding authority has a legal team. We need help from a solicitor to navigate the legal system, understand all of the evidence and to represent me at the next hearing.

Currently, we can't get legal aid. We are a low-income family. We can't afford the legal costs. 

What are we trying to achieve? 

We are asking everybody who can to help us fight for our right to have a normal family life at home.  We think equality and private family life rights are important to everybody whatever their race and disability. Our original culture is very important to our whole family. Your contribution can make big difference for  us to  allow us to afford to get a good human rights solicitor and barrister to support our case.

My daughter lacks capacity to instruct a solicitor but one has been appointed on her behalf.

I feel so sorry I can't disclose my name or my daughter’s name here on account of a court order.

We need your support: please contribute and share this page now!

Thank you so much for your kind support!