Nghe An strengthens propaganda and raises awareness about autism
(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of May 13, the Nghe An Provincial Children's Fund held a conference to summarize the project "Promoting the implementation of children's rights, ensuring children's access to support resources, health care services and education for children with autism spectrum disorder".
Attending the conference were representatives of the Justice Innovation Fund (JIFF), representatives of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the districts selected to implement the project including: Anh Son, Do Luong, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau and Nghi Loc.
The project "Promoting the implementation of children's rights, ensuring children's access to support resources, health care and education services for children with autism spectrum disorder in Nghe An province" funded by the Justice Innovation Fund (JIFF) will be implemented from August 2023 to May 2024 in 5 districts: Anh Son, Do Luong, Quynh Luu, Dien Chau and Nghi Loc.
The project aims to contribute to raising public awareness of autism spectrum disorders, promoting the rights of children with autism spectrum disorders, and ensuring children have access to appropriate support resources, health care services and education.
During the implementation period, the project organized 20 training and communication courses to raise awareness of autism spectrum disorder for key local officials, the community and families with autistic children; surveyed, screened and detected early for more than 900 children with developmental disorders; provided consultation and legal aid to 129 families with autistic children.
In addition, the project also established a group "Accompanying autistic children in Nghe An" on Facebook to provide knowledge about autistic children and the rights of autistic children; connect families of autistic children with professionals including: Doctors, psychologists, special educators, speech specialists... In addition, it also calls for sponsors to support autistic children; connect a network of specialized centers in Nghe An province.
In addition to the achieved results, the project still has some difficulties and limitations: The coordination of some localities is not uniform; the level and awareness of the training subjects about autism spectrum disorder, intervention methods, rights of children and families of autistic children are not uniform; there are still some parents who have low self-esteem, hide the disease, do not accept, or are not ready to share their children's problems.
In addition, there are large needs of the target audience that exceed the project's ability to meet such as: Needs for raising awareness, career guidance, livelihood support, special education funding support, etc.
At the conference, representatives of districts implementing the project and specialized centers in the province also shared experiences in implementing the project; assessed limitations and proposed solutions for the coming time.
To continue promoting the results achieved by the project, representatives of the JIFF Foundation and the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An province requested local authorities to continue to strengthen propaganda work, raise awareness of autism spectrum disorder in the community; organize training programs for professional staff on care, education and support for children with autism spectrum disorder.
In addition, actively mobilize resources to care for and support children with autism spectrum disorder to access health care and education services; build an inclusive environment for children with autism spectrum disorder./.
