‘World Autism Awareness Day’ celebrated

DIMAPUR: World Autism Awareness Day was celebrated at Jo Foundation Inclusive School, Kohima with state commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Diethono Nakhro as guest speaker on Saturday.
According to a DIPR report, the state commissioner in her speech said this year’s theme was “inclusive quality education for all” and was chosen to draw attention to the disruption of education especially for autistic children due to the pandemic.
Despite the numerous constraints that existed, she appreciated the Inclusive School for providing quality education to the children. Diethono said disability had been a neglected sector, not only by the government but by the society.
She however said improvements were taking place and conversations on disability in various sectors were now visible.
The state commissioner also said there were still misconceptions and misunderstandings and negative perceptions about disability. Stigmas surrounding autism can be removed through proper awareness created at grassroots level and by making the education system more inclusive, she suggested.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Jo Foundation Inclusive School, Daniel Thong Solo said autism was a disorder that hampered communication and social skills.
He said autistic people were not able to express their feelings and they had problems understanding other people’s feelings.
Daniel also explained that there were different degrees of autism and early intervention was essential for providing support to autistic people.
Support and therapy can help manage the challenges that ASD poses, he said. He informed that the Inclusive School was started with his wife to help children who had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) like their son.
It may be mentioned that the Jo Foundation Inclusive School is looking after 34 special needs children with autism, down syndrome, ADHD, intellectual learning disability, speech and hearing impaired, locomotor disability and dwarfism.
Earlier, “Kung-fu demo” and “colourful rainbow” were displayed by Jo Foundation students and a special presentation was delivered by St. Joseph College, Jakhama.
Later, speech on “journey of an affected parent” was delivered by Vincent Belho.