Nagpur: Various events to mark Autism Awareness Week

NAGPUR: Prayas School for Children with Special Needs will hold World Autism Awareness Week from March 31 to April 5 by organizing various cultural and educative programmes besides taking out rallies.
World Autism Awareness Day is observed on April 2.

Awareness programmes will be held at Chhapru Nagar Garden, NIT Garden, Japanese Garden and Dattatray Nagar Garden. An outdoor visit for autistic students will be held on Thursday. A workshop on neurological disorders will be conducted by paediatric neurologist Amarjeet Wagh on Friday.

On World Autism Awareness Day, a rally titled ‘Walk for Autism’ will be organized from Sarvoday Ashram which will culminate at Traffic Park, Dharampeth, where a cultural programme will take place. The rally will be inaugurated by Shyam Partani, president of Pharmacy Aghadi, Dr Umesh Shingne, president of Vaidyakiya Aghadi and Sukeshani Telgote, social welfare officer, Zilla Parishad.

Addressing a press conference, Prayas secretary Kiran Binkar said, “It is working in the field of disability and rehabilitation since 2008 and is a school mainly for autistic children. It is generally observed that common people lack information about autism and are sometimes seen misbehaving with them or giving weird glances. Autistic kids do not realize that they are being ill-treated. But such looks hurt their near and dear ones.”

Therefore, Prayas has been creating awareness among people so that such kids get social acceptance and are not maltreated, Binkar said.

President Ritesh Diwe said autism is a neuro developmental disorder that usually affects communication and social behaviour of an individual. “At Prayas, we teach the kids as per their needs and concentrate mainly on social skills. We have observed that once people become aware about autism, their attitude is changed and they help kids lead a normal life,” he said.

“We expect youngsters to get involved in creating awareness because once they understand the situation, they can be of great help to autistic people,” he added.