Drownings drive new safety effort for Minnesota kids with autism
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Two years after her son Waeys Mohamed drowned, Fay Jede watches on as her younger son, Warsame learns how to flip himself over to float in water. Warsame is listening as water safety educators from FOSS Swim School give a presentation with the Waeys Water Safety Foundation.
Jede started the foundation in honor of her son to provide education, support and scholarships for mothers in her community who she said are limited in access to water safety information.
“I don’t know how to swim,” she said. “I grew up in Ethiopia and I didn’t have a lot of access to swimming pools. Swimming was not part of my growing up journey at all. But now I learned that swimming is very important and it can save children.”
Research at Columbia University found that children with autism are 160 times more likely to die from drowning compared to their neurotypical peers. In 2025, according to the National Autism Safety Council, the majority of autism-related deaths from wandering were drownings.
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Waeys Water Safety Foundation partners with Foss Swim School in Hopkins where Jede and her family used to live. Foss has classes designed specifically for children who are neurodivergent and lessons to teach adults how to be responsible “water watchers.”
“I think it’s doing the education and allowing the communities to then encourage each other,” said Wendy Andersen, executive director of Waeys Water Safety Foundation. “I don’t think it’s up to us to do it all, but it is up to us to educate, to help people become aware.”
Andersen was the Hopkins police chaplain called to the scene when Waeys first went missing. Andersen said after that experience, she wanted to help Jede and other mothers in the community.
Jede’s younger son Warsame was only 2 when his then four-year-old brother Waeys drowned.
“Every time I drive by water, it comes to my mind every time I drive by swimming pools,” Jede said. “Every time I see a missing child — autistic, missing child on Facebook.”
Now Jede wants to protect her younger son and others in her community. She said this foundation is helping her heal.
“It’s something I wish I had,” she said. “And now that I have another child, Waeys’ brother, who’s also autistic. It's one of the things that's now pushing me to do this work.”
Waeys Water Safety Foundation is starting in Hopkins but Jede hopes it expands across Minnesota.
