Team Taj - Our journey towards a more accessible, sustainable and inclusive world.

Below is a transcription of the video

Hi my name is Ben and I’m starting this venture for a lot of reasons. The biggest and most important one is my son Taj who was born in 2018. My life took a very sharp turn in the absolute worst way possible that day in May when we went from sheer joy to a world of pain and uncertainty.

Taj was born with a severe brain injury, suspected but never 100% confirmed, to be caused by a cord compression in utero anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days prior to birth. It’s called HIE but all you really need to know is that it has left him profoundly disabled. And that’s the ‘technical’ term not my hyperbole.

Taj has cerebral palsy which has a range from very mild to very severe and well as you have probably intuited already….he’s at the top end. It means that he can’t walk, talk or eat and is 100% reliant on others for everything he does. Something so seemingly improbable took a typical life away from this beautiful boy. It also fundamentally changed our lives as parents.

All the things you dreamed about and imagined come crashing down and many of the first years of Taj’s life were dominated by feelings of trauma, fear, doubt, and helplessness. But we adjusted, our expectations shifted and our world view adapted for the better. Taj helped us to see anew. We try to give him the best quality of life that we can and he brings much joy and inspiration to us and the people that know him.

I would love it if you would watch our full story which is linked in the description. It’s an unfiltered account of what has brought us here to this moment.

This video is really about laying out the broad ideas and goals of Team Taj and how you can help.

I mentioned there were a lot of reasons for starting this and I would be lying if I didn't put myself up near the top of the list. I have survived this last 4 and half years but boy am I barely breathing under the massive weight of this mortal coil. I need to do something and my mental health has not really been accommodating of that. I’ve eeked my way over the course of 2 years to this point right here and now and I don’t know if this is going to work but I know I need to try. I can look back at some point in time and know that I did really try something for once in my life.

So here’s the plan. Team Taj is a lifeboat, a genuine account of our journey trying to turn struggle to strength. Our number one priority is an accessible house for Taj. He needs large equipment like hoists and homes, once your eyes are open to it, are just not designed or built for everyone and that’s where something called Universal Design comes in.

Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability

So we will embark on a home renovation or complete re-build of our home with universal design as our compass.

We also want to place sustainability on an equal footing to inclusivity and try to find what are the best current products and services that we can utilise and share all of this so that others can adopt and adapt those findings.

Really I want to see if I can use this incredible tool that is the internet, to reach as many people as possible that have the skills, knowledge and lived experience that I can connect with. I want to create a shared space of support and knowledge, a community of like-minded people, who share a vision of a more inclusive, sustainable and ethical world.

I have so many things I want to cover and I think that live streaming is going to be the best way I can keep this lifeboat moving in the right direction, in my limited capacity as Taj’s primary carer and dad. ,.

I will also be putting out stand alone videos, on many different topics on everything that goes into our modern lives, that I know there’s going to be something valuable in there for everyone.

If you find this whole endeavour interesting and want to help out, the best way you can is to share this with your people. Or the longer one, did I mention there’s a longer one?

The best place to keep up to date on everything is the website

Weareteamtaj.com

Also if you’re a business who is producing anything that you feel addresses what Team Taj is all about then we’d love to hear from you.

That’s it from me, keep an eye out for new content from Team Taj, thanks for watching and I'm excited to see where this new journey takes us.

Lets learn and grow together.