Our Story

When my son Olesego Kalushi was born, I was filled with love and fear. I didn’t know anything about Down syndrome. I had never met anyone who had it, and no one around me seemed to know how to help. There were no comforting words, no guidance, no support groups, just a lot of silence, confusion, and isolation.

I went home with my baby and a diagnosis I didn’t fully understand. I spent nights crying, not because I didn’t love him, but because I felt completely unprepared. I was young, overwhelmed, and trying to figure it all out on my own. The little information I could find felt cold and clinical. I needed hope. I needed community. I needed someone to say, “You and your child are going to be okay.”

But that voice never came as loudly and tangibly as I thought it would, so I decided to become that voice for others.

The Olesego Kalushi Foundation was born out of the pain and frustration of not receiving adequate support and resources through my early stages of motherhood, it was birthed by a great desire to see my son and those like him included fully in our society and see their families receiving support and equal access to opportunities.  It exists so that no parent ever has to walk this journey feeling alone or ashamed. It exists to create the support I wished I received, spaces of warmth, information, community, and celebration.

Olesego didn’t just change my life. He gave it purpose.

Through this foundation, we honour his name by uplifting children with Down syndrome and empowering the families who love them — because every child deserves to be seen, supported, and celebrated.