Glenrothes couple set for 1000km fundraising walk in Morocco

Scott Wilson Jr. (25) and Nadine Jandu (24), will embark on a journey through three countries and 30 towns in 30 days to highlight autism in the country where families experience a life full of hardship, mistreatment, discrimination, and human rights violations.

Autism’s Dunya is a global social business established in 2018 to raise awareness of autism as well as understanding and creating acceptance of autism.

Its aim is to challenge the lack of services in Morocco around early intervention and diagnosis and also equip the community with the skills of connection, communication and support of children with autism.

After the coronavirus pandemic, Hanan El Gacham, the founder of non-profit Autism Dunya, decided to change her usual method of operating and this year will instead be crowdfunding through a GoFundMe campaign, making sure it remains possible to continue to fund these upcoming projects in Morocco.

Scott said: "When I stumbled upon the Hanan's profile and saw that she was organising projects in Morocco for these kids with autism I just had to reach out and ask how I could get involved.

"The more we spoke the more I realised just how much I really believed in what she was trying to do for these children and the people around them.

“I was absolutely honoured to be accepted as part of such an amazing charity and immediately started brainstorming ideas on how I could take the crowdfunding to a whole new level.”

After being accepted to help with the project, passionate music producer Scott, decided he wanted to do more than just fundraising for Autism’s Dunya and instead ‘walk the extra mile’ in order to assist the charity.

After discussing the idea over the course of some weeks with his partner Nadine, she decided she would join Scott on his journey as she could see how much it meant to him.

She said: “Scott is extremely passionate about nature and walking as it has always helped connect him to this world on a deeper level – he loves to challenge himself and go above and beyond for something he’s passionate about.

"When he told me about Autism’s Dunya it melted my heart and I wasn’t shocked at all.

"I felt inspired, and as we are a team, of course I had to take this Journey with him.”

Scott added: "The idea of doing a walk just felt so natural to me. My love for walks in nature and pushing myself to new extremes kicked in and I knew instantly that I was going to do something pretty daring like this.”

Autism’s Dunya was established in 2018 to help raise awareness of Autism - while also helping the people of Morocco gain an understanding to create acceptance of autism within their local communities that for years have been lacking the sufficient information and access to resources.

If you would like to donate to Scott and Nadine’s fundraiser, please visit: Autism Dunya GoFundMe.