“Love me, support me, understand me, encourage me, teach me, remind me, guide me, motivate me, have patience with me, most of all, accept me”.
To deal with a social issue, it is essential to understand it and be aware of the nature of the issue, how to manage it, and the possible ways to deal with it. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a social issue as in most societies; people don’t know about the basic measures to diagnose and manage children with autism. The most crucial part is to create awareness among families of children with autism as well as in communities to spread acceptance and understanding of autism. People living with autism have it hard enough, and autism awareness is vital to better their quality of life and teach others to practice kindness.
Among many institutes, Autism Resource Centre Lahore (ARCL) is playing its vital role in creating awareness programs and campaigns about autism since 2015. For this purpose, ARCL organises an annual campaign program on 2nd April in which people who directly or indirectly interact with autism are invited and get awareness through different unique ideas. This campaign includes presentations, plays that unveil myths about autism, knowledge of assessments, and guidance for therapies. Awareness comes with acceptance and to create acceptance, documentaries are made of children who get diagnosis and therapies timely and live a managed life to some extent. These success stories encourage people and motivate them to understand more about their children having special needs.
Arcl actively promotes awareness through print media in the form of broachers and banners. On social media, it has its own Facebook page, in which different researches, informative videos, and articles are shared. ARCL staff considers its sole duty to psycho educate the parents and other family members to decrease their stress level and make it easy for them to deal with their children with special needs. ARCL staff and administration aim to join hands with families of children with special needs to make their view more clear and positive. They help parents understand that these children can live a functional life but in their unique way as the famous quote says, “Autism is a blessing, not a burden. Embrace being different”.
“It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a child with autism to raise the consciousness of village”.