September 14-2011
The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation (MCADF) yesterday (Wednesday September 14-2011) received 50 percent of the organisation’s most recent grant, to assist with the organisation’s work to help the Autistic poor and marginalized in Jamaica.
The grant was awarded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for the staging of the event Autism Splash this November 7 and 8 at the Emancipation Park Kingston Jamaica.
The Foundation representatives collected the first tranche of the 1 point 2 million dollar allocation, which was granted to the organization specifically through the CIDA mechanism: the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) Program, an initiative which falls under the administrative remit of the Canadian Investment Development Agency (CIDA).
Several members of the (MCADF) board, on Wednesday met with the Canadian High Commissioner Stephen Hallihan, Marie Legault Counselor and Head of Aid with CIDA and project supervisor for the Autism Splash for CIDA Dr. Bridgette Barrett; at the Canadian High Commission offices in Kingston, Jamaica to get the process started for the event, as well as communicate the project timelines and requirements from the CIDA end.
Autism Splash was conceptualized by founder of The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation Maia Chung. The purpose of the Autism Splash is to offer free diagnoses to children, teens and adults - living with Autism, as well as offering free information and resources about living well with the disorder Autism; to persons whose children and or relatives or charges have been diagnosed with Autism.
Additionally the Foundation will be using the event to create a database of confirmed Autism cases, that will be made available to the Ministries of government that have the relevant responsibilities that relate to the State’s management of persons living with Autism and any type of challenges.
The other purposes behind Autism Splash include the effort by the organization to increase awareness about the brain disorder Autism, as well as using the information gathered at the Autism Splash to develop a position paper to assist the Foundation to lobby Government to develop more effective and necessary strategies for Autists in Jamaica.
The event will be staged on Monday November 7 and Tuesday 8 -2011 and will take place between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day.
The event is free to the affected and will involve displays by various organizations that treat with the nation’s disabled.
Free materials will be handed out to the affected and a limited number of free meals will be provided for the identifiably Autism affected indigent.
The diagnostic event will seek to provide as many diagnostic reports as possible and will involve services from six Jamaican Autism experts and diagnostic specialists who will work at the event for the two days.
The event represents another groundbreaking move for the Foundation which in its 3 year existence has developed several strategies to heighten awareness about the growing presence of the Autism disorder in Jamaica and around the globe, as well as the necessity for the nation to prepare mechanisms and infrastructure that can help the growing number of affected families live productive lives.
According to Chung, “our specialisation is in doing projects that have a discernible and real time impact, a lot of the interventions that are mounted on behalf of many of the marginalized groups tend to be very esoteric and not necessarily immediately tangible, which persons who are suffering need. These diagnostic reports that are going to be a chief factor of the event are like the passports that the Autistic individual needs to access education, therapies and various other essential life style development interventions”.
She adds that, “these reports, can take in the current system… some time two years to access the specialists who can provide these and then the actual cost of the session is ridiculous, I have a job and I cannot afford it”.
Autism related therapies are not covered in any consistent way by health insurance companies in Jamaica.This event is hoping to impact the lives of at the very least one thousand Autism affected Jamaicans.
The Foundation’s project management responsibilities for will be shared between Chung and two other board members Nicole Hayles-McGowan and Jeanette Gordon.Meanwhile various other board members of the organization will be involved in seeing to the event’s fruition.
Autism is defined by the Autism Society of America (ASA) as a “complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is a result of neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that every 20 minutes someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with Autism. Autism affects persons from any race, ethnicity or socio-economic grouping.
