About Us
Autism Ekasi is a Non-Profit organization committed to educating and assisting families with Autistic children. Autism affects children of every race, ethnic group and socioeconomic status. Our children are frequently confronted with late diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Autism Support is important to the development of children. Our goal is to help the families to identify the red flags of autism early.
Our people lack resources, and the available facilities are too expensive for these families. Children are hidden from society because of the stigma attached, especially our black communities. We are faced with requests from mothers who cannot even afford to get transport to have their children diagnosed. We hope our centre will be in a position to afford these parents assistance and work together with social workers.
Our dream is to create a place where support is available, and parents are able to share their challenges. A place where we could all just be ourselves without having to explain why we are the way we are. This brings me to forming a Network (Network for Autism), here parents are able to register and be part of forming a mapping which will ease the stress of “what happens now”. Many parents are not sure where and what to do when faced with challenges. That is why we have so many children being hidden away from society because of the stigma and discrimination they face. What can we do to improve the lives of the lives of our “ANGELS”?
Our Goals and Objectives
Autism Ekasi strives to:
- Build the capacity and skills of individuals, families, communities and professionals to help individuals with Autism -Spectrum- Disorder realize opportunities for successful community inclusion.
- Raise awareness and understanding of Autism -Spectrum -Disorders and promote the rights of all individuals to be treated with dignity and respect.
- To promote acceptance of people with all disabilities as each of us have amazing gifts, talents and skills to share.
- To empower individuals with autism to identify their strengths, gifts and talents and to celebrate their successes.
Our Involvement
Early Childhood Development
There is a great need for a centre which caters for special needs within our community. Many parents have to stay at home to take care of their children due to the lack of resources available. Our aim is to have a centre which will alleviate these problems and work with trained volunteers from the community who will look after the children during the day.
By establishing basic skills at an early age, we are able to identify and focus on developing these strong skills. We will be working with speech therapist and occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Our hearts are with the community and with this passion we will support, build and educate to uplift the community.
This project will not only benefit the children but also educate the community at large that especial needs children need love and support like any other child. Our caregivers will be trained on Makaton which is used for teaching children with Autism. We use signs and pictures, and it has been used for many years in the USA and proofed to be beneficial for our children.
We plan to establish centres in all our townships as these are the areas of most under privileged homes who cannot afford to send their children to private centres. In three years, we hope to have extended our centre to accommodate our children from Grade R to Grade 7.
The centre will make provision for 200 children having the first intake of 60 children.
A school will make provision for 200 children. A first intake of 80 children is foreseen.
The building plans will make provision for future extensions to cater for an increased number of children.
The School Building
A school building will consist of:
- Five classrooms
- Kitchen
- Indoor facilities
- Administration office
- Storage space
- Support Centre
The School Building
The curriculum will be inclusive to the Department of Education.
The Makaton communication- based programme will be used.
Picture Exchange Communication (PEC).
Our goal is to prepare the children with life skills, to be able to fend for themselves during adulthood.
Teachers
Our teachers will be recruited from the local communities, the majority of which will be previously unemployed ladies. These teachers will be trained and receive continuous in- service training and monitoring. All teachers will be screened and cleared through police clearance certification.
Job Creation
The school will accommodate 200 children and will be in need of the following staff members. Permanent job opportunities that are being created.
- 14 Teachers
- Cook (plus 1 assistant)
- Principal
- Secretary
- Caretaker
- Cleaner
- Driver
- Project Manager
We need your help and support to make this project a success.