Autism Awareness Starts At Home

April second is internationally recognized as World Autism Awareness Day. A day meant to serve as a platform to foster appreciation for and honor individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as bring awareness to some of the challenges people with autism and their families may face so that communities may extend acceptance and support for the individuals. News Five spoke with executive chair and founder of Autism Belize to learn more about the day’s significance. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Autism is a neurological and developmental condition related to brain development that impacts the way individuals perceive, socialize, and interact with others and their surroundings. Signs of autism can usually be observed in the early childhood years, with it affecting one in every fifty-eight children born worldwide, according to the CDC. Executive chair and founder of Autism Belize, Christy Castillo Almeida, explained their mission.

 

Christy Castillo Almeida, Executive Chair and Founder, Autism Belize

“Autism Beliefs started in 2020. We’re parents, we’re all volunteers, and we have four goals. We want to teach about autism, we want to promote awareness, we want to provide support for parents, and we want to show acceptance. So everything we do is about that. It’s all parent driven, and it’s about that support and creating that network for our families, and then educating Belize.”

 

Almeida said that Autism Belize was started in the midst of the COVID lockdown to spread the word about Autism Awareness Month and offer support to parents who were struggling to adequately support their children and their needs during the lockdown. It began with thirteen online sessions covering various autism-related therapies. She explained that Autism Belize is not meant to diagnose individuals; it is a community that helps others gain support, advice, and understanding.

 

Christy Castillo Almeida

“I’d never done a live before, but we were trying to get the word out there. And we had so many parents that came back to us like was coming in and saying, Oh my gosh, I thought it was alone. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do. And so I NGO. It was definitely parent driven. It just people kept coming and we grew very rapidly, very fast during the COVID time when everybody was at home, struggling on how to deal with their children. And then coming out of COVID we had a lot of kids with developmental delays might not have been autism, but just because they were at home for those very instrumental years and not at preschool not getting that simulation. We had even more families coming and see. What can we do? And ever since then, we provide trainings every single month for parents.”

 

While April second is recognised as World Autism Day, Almeida said that the entire month is dedicated to autism awareness. Every Friday throughout the month, people are encouraged to wear blue as a sign of support.

 

Christy Castillo Almeida

“It’s really to start to get the world talking. A lot of times in the past, a lot of people go, Oh my gosh, I don’t know where it’s all coming from. We didn’t hear about autism and now everybody has an autistic child. It really isn’t that a lot of it was we would keep them hidden. These were the kids that they pull out in infant two and keep at home because they figured they can never learn. Spoiler alert, they can always learn. And we kept it hidden. And what we’re trying to do is take these kids, these invisible children and bring them out in the spotlight and say, Hey world, it’s time for you to adjust to us. Let them come live in our dynamic, vivid world, and so it is about the conversation. So worldwide, buildings light up blue. We’re talking Empire State Building, the Opera Center the Taj Mahal, all around the world go blue. Because of Easter and how we go, we actually do the whole month. And what we ask is for people to go blue for the month and also to wear blue on Fridays.”

 

Autism Belize will be partnering with several organizations throughout the month to host activities that draw the public out and encourage participation in events alongside neurodivergent individuals and their families.

 

Christy Castillo Almeida

“We partnered with Special Olympics. So the walk run Special Olympics is coming out and they’re bringing all their people to come out and support as well. And then every year we partner with Belize City Council, and we go in the Friday before and we do multiple sessions like an hour. so much. Every hour they send in like fifteen people from traffic, from court, from all over. And then we do these sensitization talks all throughout the day. So the same talk over and over again to different people. special needs families. So not just autism. We invite families of similar merits and we’re inviting special Olympics. And we have an event just for them in the park in the mornings. Afterwards they have for the general population, but they do that for us. And so we’re always really grateful. So we have that sort of event where families can feel comfortable to bring their children.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.