Within 5 weeks I crossed seven countries situated in the Alps by bike and climbed the highest mountains. What were my aims?
1) to increase awareness round the problems 30.000 autistic people have to
face in Nepal; one of the poorest countries in the World
2) to raise money for further training and education of people working with
autistic people.
3) to establish my idea CC - Competence C
ounts
Competence is the most needed valuable to make a project a success; apart from money. The Nepalese organization Autism Care Nepal (ACN; www.autismnepal.org) was founded in 2008 by a group of enthusiastic and dedicated parents who saw themselves confronted with the fact: our child is autistic. Until then, autism was virtually unknown in Nepal because there was neither awareness nor knowledge about this disorder that affects (in its severe form) about 30.000 people in Nepal. The universities, medical schools and other educational institutions did (and to a certain degree still do) not include autism as a topic in their trainings or studies. The parents went out to collect information and knowledge about autism and established a school, built up a consultation system of specialists who can diagnose autism, run training courses for parents, teachers and health personnel, they implement events to attract the attention of the country`s politicians and invite specialists to help them to improve the efficiency of their work; the latter is costly and often beyond what ACN can afford as the government still does not disburse funds. If you have experience in the field of autism – be it as a special need teacher, music or art therapist, dance or ergo therapist, augmentative and alternative (AAC) speech specialist – please consider to give a few hours of your holiday to ACN in Kathmandu to hold a lecture or a workshop. Of course, you are also welcome to assist ACN as a volunteer over a longer period of time. For more information please contact ACN: www.autismnepal.org
autismnepal@gmail.com