WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY 2012
- Details
- Parent Category: News
- Created on Friday, 27 July 2012 03:21
- Published on Friday, 27 July 2012 03:16
- Hits: 455
WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY 2012 has been asuccess! The symbolic lighting of a prominent building in the city was held at Rizqun International Hotel last April 1,2012 around 6pm to 9pm with the participation of members of SMARTER BRUNEI, UPK, Director of Arts from UBD, and Prismworks Event Management and other invited guests
THEME FOR 2012:
GOAL (Generating Opportunities for Adult Life) for Adults with Autism
Azaraimy HH
Symbolic lighting in celebration of 5th World Autism Awareness Day
Article from Borneo Bulletin. Published on Monday Apr, 02 2012
SMARTER Brunei celebrated the 5th World Autism Awareness Day slightly differently this time around, doing so by lighting up a Brunei landmark in the shade of blue - the colour of autism for this year.
The event was witnessed last night outside The Rizqun International Hotel in the presence of Minister of Development cum guest of honour Pehin Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Suyoi bin Hj Osman.
The event marked the start of many upcoming activities organised by SMARTER Brunei to commemorate the 5th World Autism Awareness Day celebrated globally every April 2.
'Generating Opportunities for Adult Life' is the theme chosen by SMARTER Brunei this year.
The event saw a charity dinner to raise money for the SMARTER Fund, with a portion of the donations to be contributed to a fund for victims of a typhoon in Mindanao, The Philippines.
In his speech, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Suyoi congratulated SMARTER Brunei, a NGO, for continuing its unrelenting dynamism throughout its 10 years of existence.
He said, SMARTER Brunei should be proud of its strong effort in supporting the government in helping autistic children in the country.
The minister also lauded SMARTER Brunei's passionate drive towards its challenging journey to provide a quality institution that helps autistic children in the country, which is seeing an increase in number.
Quoting a recent article in the Bulletin, the minister said, in the US, the number of children potentially at risk of autism has increased to one in every 80 children, compared to one in every 150 births.
"From this, it is suffice to say that this phenomenon will continue to pose a challenge," he added.
With the attention given by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, through government agencies, the minister believes efforts to help this situation will continue to strengthen.
In line with the chosen theme, Pehin Dato Seri Setia Awg Hj Suyoi also highlighted SMARTER Brunei's initiative to increase efforts by introducing a 'Competency Based Training Programme' for autistic adults, where at the end of course, they will receive a vocational certification of their skills for them to use in their independent adult life.
Meanwhile, according to SMARTER Brunei President Malai Abdullah, SMARTER Brunei has so far a total of 104 individuals with autism actively receiving Intervention Programme, Continuous Education Programme and Adult Programme at the three centres.
"This evening is the beginning of a month-long awareness programme. At the same time, we also want to contribute by donating to the Mindanao fund as part of our social responsibility," he said.
"The theme for last year was 'Act 4 Autism Now.' So our theme this year is our action, which is 'GOAL 4 Adult With Autism.' It stands for 'Generating Opportunities for Adult Life'.
"Thus our activities are to generate and create opportunities not only for adults with autism and their families, but also opportunities for the private and public sectors, as well as the community as a whole.
"We hope this light-up will highlight and spotlight awareness on autism to a higher level of real action, not just merely talking. We also hope SMARTER becomes a lighthouse, a beacon of hope, pointing all families with autism in their journey in this dangerous and treacherous ocean of real world, where there are dangers lurking everywhere.
"SMARTER Brunei will initiate the generating of opportunities by giving our adults with autism the opportunity to get vocational certification of specific skill through our CBT training programme which we will launch tomorrow (today)," he added.
"For this month, we will be conducting roadshows at all secondary schools willing to have us conduct awareness programme by showing the film 'Wretchers and Jabberers' - the journey of two adults with autism around the world. If the response is good, we will continue until the end of the year.
"Another big initiative of generating opportunities for adult life is that we have started weekly classes on photography, fine art, music and movement, drama and poetry and we hope to hold our first photo exhibition this June to view the world from their perspective and lenses.
"We hope our initiatives will become a catalyst for other agencies to generate, create, open, facilitate and provide appropriate and relevant opportunities for adults with autism to explore, experience and enjoy life with their peers," he added.