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BRIGITTE KOBENAN
Mrs. Congeniality World 2008
Founder, Autism Community of Africa
Brigitte Kobenan was born in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and moved to the United Sates over a decade ago to pursue her studies in finance.
She worked as a Business Development Officer and Financial Advisor for several years at Amalgamated Bank in Washington DC.
On April 2000, Brigitte’s first child, Vinny, was born. At the age of 4, Vinny was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder while on vacation in Canada. Since that time, Brigitte Kobenan and her husband have been fighting the uphill battle faced by every family with a child with autism. Finding appropriate resources, experts and treatments became an everyday challenge. Despite a stable and well-established life in the DC region, Brigitte and her husband decided to move the family to Phoenix Arizona as they were told to find better treatment options for Autism. In Arizona, Brigitte’s son received the appropriate treatment for his condition, which helped him improve and live a better life. After two years in Arizona, the Kobenan family returned to Maryland and as of today continues to follow the same treatment regimen for their son. Vinny is more sociable, can talk and is able to play with other children. He is in second grade with an aid and is going to third grade in fall 2008.
Although, some challenges still remain for Vinny, his tremendous improvement has inspired Brigitte Kobenan to share her experience with other families. In this journey with her son, she met many African families in the United States and in Africa who were confronted with the same issues. However many of them were either afraid or ashamed to disclose their child’s condition for fear of rejection. Others lacked the necessary information, resources, tools or finances to care for their children.
In 2007, Brigitte Kobenan founded the not-for-profit organization Autism Community of Africa to create a platform to share her experience and help African families in need, by providing information and resources.
With the objective to make the voices of children with Autism heard around the world, she decided to run for the Mrs. World 2008 pageant in Kaliningrad Russia and used Autism as her platform, an issue she deeply cares about.
Brigitte Kobenan represented her native country Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and was elected “Mrs Congeniality World 2008” on June 29, 2008.
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