marvellous malaysian
Noorhashimah was at the top of her career
as Principal to an architectural practice
and an Associate Professor lecturing at
local university UiTM when Jamila was
diagnosed. Thus began the daunting
journey of juggling a double profession
while taking care of a special needs child
and her youngest daughter Jemima, who
were both very young.
Being in the education industry has
helped Noorhashimah to find various
early-intervention programmes and
autism therapy centres to enroll Jamila
in order to prepare her for kindergarten,
followed by government schools for
primary education. This is where it needs
to be stressed that although we do have a
structured curriculum in place for special
needs students in government schools,
the lack of proper implementation, and
the shortage of skilled teachers is a
massive disadvantage to the development
of those in need. After a few years of
government schooling, Noorhashimah
tried a different approach in dealing with
Jamila’s underdeveloped literacy skills, and
enrolled her in a dyslexic centre instead.
Here, Jamila showed miraculous results
in learning how to read using phonics
techniques designed for dyslexic students.
It goes to show that there’s never a wrong
way of learning as long as a positive
outcome is achieved in the end. This is
most definitely true for most people who
are not even on the spectrum.
On top of being a working mother dealing
with the challenges of her children’s
growing pains, Noorhashimah was
diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. This
caused her to be out of commission for
quite some time while treatments and
operations were conducted to save her life.
Noorhashimah recalled how Jamila had
suffered quite a difficult time in secondary
school not having her mother available
to help her academically while being in
recovery. Painfully witnessing her struggles,
Noorhashimah then made the hardest
decision of retiring from both her full time
jobs to focus on Jamila’s education and her
burgeoning career as an artist. She tailor-
made her own homeschooling programme
for Jamila that was more skill-centred with
a humanistic pedagogy that focused on
emotional and social development.
It was then, Jamila flourished and her
art career soared. Taking inspiration
from fellow autistic savant and British
architectural artist Stephen Wiltshire–
known for his ability to draw whole
landscapes from seeing them just once–
Noorhashimah identified Jamila as being
a visual thinker who documents her own
life experiences and observations in her
uniquely patterned and lively, colourful
paintings. Having personally coached
Jamila with her artwork since she was 10
years old, Jamila’s techniques and skills
have grown exponentially which saw her
creating large scale elaborate pieces that
have gone on to be exhibited at major art
shows such as Imago Mundi (three nations
exhibition including Malaysia, Indonesia
and Singapore), and ArtEDecor in 2018. This
was only at 15 years old.She’s just getting started, and her list of
achievements so far includes participation
in 16 live painting sessions, charity
contributions of commissioned works to
The National Autism Society of Malaysia
(NASOM), Manipal Hospital, 3 mini solo
exhibitios, 25 group exhibitions at a
national level, and 3 group exhibitions at
an international level. She’s also won the
prestigious National Autism Champions
2019 award for her contributions to
Malaysia’s autism community. Media
coverage for Jamila has been constant as
there is a hunger for stories like hers that
shine as a beacon not just for the autism
community, but for all Malaysians.
Her story has touched hearts all over after
being featured in local newspapers such
asKosmo Malaysia,The Malay Mail,Harian
Metro Malaysia,New Straits Times,BeritaARTJAMILA cowritten by Noorhashimah and Jemima