Miss Uganda Melts Hearts at Miss World with Powerful Autism Advocacy

Miss Uganda, Natasha Nyonyozi, yesterday delivered a powerful Beauty with a Purpose speech during the Miss World Head-to-Head Challenge in India, captivating audiences and sparking emotional reactions.

Her words wrapped in grace, Natasha introduced herself as an accountant, a business owner, and a woman with a vision to empower others through financial literacy, self-acceptance, and most notably, autism awareness.

She boldly confronted a deeply rooted stigma in her community and the country at large by addressing the misconceptions and stereotypes attached to autism. “Where I come from, autism is not a conversation that people want to have. Autism is regarded as a curse, it is also regarded as witchcraft,” she said

She shared the touching story of her younger brother, Ethan, the first boy in a family of nine who was diagnosed with autism at the age of two.

“We were so excited to have a boy, my little brother I couldn’t wait to baby sit but at the age of two he was diagnosed with autism and right after that we had a lot of people coming up to us asking if we were sure we didn’t sacrifice him just so that we could get money or whatever it is. They asked if we didn’t perform any witchcraft on him,” she recalled.

Ethan, who is also nonverbal, became Natasha’s inspiration and the heartbeat of the cause. “I feel like his freedom of speech has been stolen from him, and the world might not understand that, and that is why I decided to start the Nyonyozi initiative, which advocates and empowers children with special needs, especially those on the spectrum. I named it Nyonyozi after my surname, which directly translates to a star in my local language, because I wanted these special needs children to feel like they too are stars, regardless of what the world wants to name them.”

Through the Nyonyozi Initiative, Natasha has ignited a movement. She has organised Uganda’s first Autism Awareness Run, held numerous awareness walks, collaborated with organisations such as Autism Society Uganda and PONZA Autism, and hosted weekly live sessions on her social media to educate the public. She has also written a book titled Colours of a Spectrum that has heartfelt stories of parents of children with autism.

Natasha is the first Miss Uganda to advocate for autism on the Miss World stage.

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