Autism is a medically famous concept. It affects more children than other neurological disorders and this is because autism is a spectrum disorder. But in reality, Autism is not only a challenge for those who are affected by it, but also those who are trying to battle it, for those who are affected. When the projects team of SIFI went to ‘We Can’ a school for autistic children in Neelankari, Chennai, we find that not only are we blessed to be born as the people we are, but our creator sends us a message, loud and clear that we have to roll up our sleeves and get to working on finding the golden solution that would help us, help them lead a normal life every day.

Venkatesh and Aparajith, from the projects team went to We Can, to study and learn on what it takes to take up teaching as a challenge, and where simple concepts feature on a steeper learning curve. The first lesson was patience, with different children having difference levels of understanding, Mrs. Geetha made it clear that as of today, the fight against autism isnt a losing battle not with advancement in neuroscience and standardized lesson plans to benefit autistic children. Even while teaching, one student might take a week to learn to sit in one place for a simple 10 counts, while another might take the same week to learn to cut carrots properly The second lesson wasn’t for the students, but the parents. When asked, Mrs Geetha said, there are 3 kinds of parents, one who accept their child and work to ease his/her daily life from unwanted complications and two, parents who accept their child but still work hard and push the child to excel in mainstream education and three, those who sadly live in denial and wish to push their child only to fall each time.

Autism does not know caste, religion and social status. Albeit it is three times common in boys than in girls. More than anything else, the battle to help autistic children is a very arduous one as very few well trained and qualified people are there in the field, and they themselves are concentrated at the tier-1 cities out of sheer passion to help more than anything else. Autism in the urban regions where parents, doctors and teachers work in tandem to battle it out, arming themselves with information, medical infrastructure and paper qualifications, for the sole goal of helping the autistic child lead a smoother day-to-day life. Public perception of any neurological disorder makes one wonder if the public is of sound mind in the first place, as it is quite absurd to battle out an issue with only passion without rationale or with only rationale sans passion. With a distinct disparity between medical care in urban and rural areas, autism is a challenge worth battling it out. Autism, being a spectrum disorder, has a fundamental problem, of how a solution to one boy cannot and need not be a viable solution to another boy. But basic ground zero planning helps them all, irrespective of what type of autism they have. For instance, We Can, is a specially designed school with small rooms that facilitate one on one teaching, the walls are textured to provide a certain grip and have facilities such as ‘pictorial timetable’ they have an in-house garden and a miniature kitchen to train them to perform simple tasks. Mrs Geetha boasts of i-pads that have apps which help autistic kids in learning.

The visit to We Can on world autism awareness day was a learning experience for the projects team, we needed guidance as SIFI ventures into its next project, on helping an NGO tackle Learning Disability, We Can was a school to SIFI and its students, our teachers.

If you wish to socially-invest in this cause or if you would like to clarify with us on our operations drop a mail at mailsifi@gmail.com with ‘Projects Team’ as the subject.