HYDERABAD: In conjunction with Global Autism Awareness Month, Alrite Autism Centre from Malaysia is collaborating with Breathe! a vegan café in Secunderabad to make it an autism-friendly vegan cafe in the month of April which will welcome families with children with autism to experience nutrition food and equipped with basic visual structure to dine in.
The cafe will have visual supports such as communication board, emotion flip card, behaviour traffic, coping strategy card, wash hand schedule card, visual menu, social story and activity placements.
“These additional supports may work as a support system to help children to stay calm and express their needs and desires. To make it more resourceful, there is a free virtual consultation for parents, free virtual training and free printable during the month of April,” informs Mishantini Sanderasa gran, Founder, Director – ALRITE Autism Centre, Malaysia.
April is Autism Awareness Month and autism centres around the world will be involved in programmes to create awareness to public about autism.
“Together with this project, we are simultaneously creating awareness in our country and doing our best to collaborate with others to help families globally. The objective is to do our part to make this world an autism friendly world by transforming public places to be accommodative for individuals with autism for them to live their lives to the fullest. Most individuals with autism are not able to function in the social context because the environment is not suitable to accommodate their needs.
"Imagine an autism friendly world and you will be seeing most people with autism living their lives to their fullest potential. Why imagine when we can make it happen. Reaching out more to families during the pandemic and providing supports through free virtual consultations. Support families on their emotional basis by providing the right training. One of our step in this initiative to bring changes was made in 2019 where we collaborated with a restaurant and a dental clinic to make it an autism-friendly restaurant and clinic,” she adds.
“This year we are working with Krishna Vikas the founder of Breathe to create a conducive and green setup which will make families feel welcome. We hope we can reach more people on nutrition food and an inclusive environment for families with autism and we are dedicating our time virtually for parents who can reach us,” she adds.
"The organisation extending our support with free virtual consultation, trainings and printable resources to assist parents on skills acquisition and behaviour modification for parents who has children with autism. Breathe cafe will have more details,” she adds.
— Manju Latha Kalanidhi
kalanidhi@newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi