Jamaica’s 2012 Autism And Disabilities Ambassadors Chosen And Will Be Announced On April 28
The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation (MCADF) is pleased to announce that this year’s Autism and Disabilities Ambassadors Competition 2012, designed to commemorate Autism month – observed globally in April each year; has yielded results the Foundation is extremely pleased with.
The winners have been found and will be announced on the Foundation’s birthday April 28-2012, at the first ever Autism and Disabilities Banquet, fully sponsored by the Wyndham Kingston Jamaica, a new sponsor for this year’s competition.
The MCADF as of April 28-2012 will be four years old, having been established in 2008 by Managing Director of the entity, Maia Chung.
The competition structured to address the secondary school demographic, is the Foundation’s attempt to sensitize the age group between 12-18 about the needs, of the ever increasing Autism and disabilities population. Hopefully to help them garner awareness they may not have, with a view to looking at careers in the fields that address Autism, where Jamaica has a serious dearth.
According to MCADF Managing Director Maia Chung, “again we had a great result, but again the discipline necessary to carry out the functions needed to be chosen as an Ambassador; saw several entrants falling by the way side unable to maintain the three month long endurance test, which is mainly to see how long can these kids do things to benefit the disabled community, that they would not normally do, in order to learn about a part of the populace often ignored by the younger people of the land”.
Jeanette Gordon a judge and a board member of the MCADF, says “last year’s inaugural competition sought to find six young people who would be awarded for working with the nation’s disabled populace for three months; starting in January each year and going on consistently until March, with the winners being announced during global Autism month by the Foundation in April”.
She continued that,” last year we found three young people who did extremely well, raising money for facilities in their communities that catered for the disabled, setting up and designing displays to heighten awareness about disabilities in public spaces, writing letters to the editor of Jamaica’s national newspapers; to alert the country of their thoughts on the situation of Jamaica’s disabled, as well as devoting consistent time over the period to volunteering with the disabled”.
Miss Gordon added, “We had kids drop out who said they could not keep up this behavior for three months, which was sad, but those who did received just under two hundred thousand dollars in prizes and opportunities to build their futures, resumes and enrich their lives”.
Last year’s competition was a resounding success according to the board of the MCADF and this year has been also. Every year the aim is to find six Ambassadors from across the nation. The Foundation reserves the right to not make an award where the conditions of the competition are not stratified.
The activities and the period of their enactment, are verified by a teacher, guidance counselor or pastor who signs on to supervise the entrant, once the entries are received January each year.
This year according to the MCADF team not just the winners will benefit, but also the schools they attend.
Sponsors for this year’s competition include Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, Senator Norman Grant, the Superplus Food Chain and the Wyndham Kingston Hotel. The entertainment community has come on board this year with Chino McGregor international reggae artiste and rising dancehall star being the guest of honour at the function and Jamaican dancehall legend Don Yute also coming on board to provide one of the school’s of this year’s competition with a new computer for that high school’s computer lab.
Don Yute whose real name is Jason Williams got involved with the Foundation’s work last year, during the MCADF’s Autism Splash held in November 2011 – a free screening event, open to the nation - that sought to collect a database of cases that could be used to help with providing specialists, with locally viable and valid information to help to aid the development of better infrastructural provisions for Jamaica’s Autistic.
Don Yute explains “I’m sponsoring the Autism and Disabilities Ambassadors competition this year just to share some joy and motivate kids with the disability. Also I would like people to remember that everyone needs love and attention especially those with disabilities like Autism“.
Nicole Hayles also a board member and judge of the annual competition added, “Our work through the MCADF is to see real impact occurring in the lives of those affected by Autism and other disabilities. If you note our track record, what we do is design and get involved in activities that have tangible results that can help move forward the positive development of the nations’ systems that are designed to treat with the issue of Autism”.
The MCADF re-iterates that this is especially necessary as the numbers still continue to grow and a cure has yet to be found. This is true in Jamaica, the region and internationally.
Meanwhile another important project the Foundation planned to mark this year’s Autism month locally was, the addition of two new resources to its Autism Kiosk located at the Tom Redcam Library in Kingston Jamaica; operated in tandem with the Jamaica Library Service and sponsored by Courts Jamaica Limited.
The new resources guaranteed to assist parents of autistic kids and others.
The materials which were added to the kiosk in the first week of April 2012 - represent detailed research on the autism situation in Jamaica, done at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and University of Technology (UTech).
One of the works given to the kiosk, which is resourced by Courts Jamaica Limited, is titled Social Investment in Children, The Case of Autistic Children (Jamaica) authored by Sheena Marie Francis.
In her work, Francis does a comprehensive examination of “the trajectories of autistic children and their specialized needs”, and further explores possible policy interventions to address this social issue.
Her work received an ‘A’ from UWI, where she studied the subject at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies.
Another document that will join Francis’ work is that of four students of the College of Health Sciences, School of Allied Nursing at UTech.
That work is titled Parenting Children with Autism: Coping Strategies of Parents with Children who have Autism in Kingston and Jamaica.
The work was researched and developed by Avra Var Bassaragh, Sherone Lotoya Barnes, Nadine Angella Chevannes and Francisca Onyedikachi Odimgbe.
The work was carried out as a part of the young women’s fulfillment of the award of their bachelor’s degrees in nursing.
Both works were completed last year and contain up-to-date material that can be used by persons in the autism segment of society to move forward and spur progress.
“We cannot address the problem if we continue to measure our situation with other countries,” Maia Chung, managing director of the foundation said.
She said time has long passed for more and more local research and investigations in order for Jamaica to treat with our problems in this area.
Members of the public can visit the library to view the material.
Autism is defined by the Autism Society of America (ASA) as: "Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both children and adults with autism typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.
Autism is one of five disorders that falls under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD), a category of neurological disorders characterized by “severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development."
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