Programme launched to support autistic children

Children playing football at SforA school. Illustrative image (Source: SforA)

HCM City (VNA) – The National Fund
for Vietnamese Children and the Phu Nhuan Jewellery company (PNJ) jointly
launched a programme on April 2 to support autistic children in Vietnam, part
of a project to raise awareness of in Vietnam.

With a budget of 10 billion VND funded by the
PNJ, the five-year programme is expected to directly benefit more than 10,000
families and 4,000 autistic children.

The project’s activities include the issuance
of a national document providing knowledge on autism, personnel training,
communications to raise public awareness of autism, and the mobilisation of
resources for supporting children with autism.

At the launching ceremony, Cao Thi Ngoc Dung,
Chairwoman of the PNJ’s board of directors, called on the community to join
hands together to give children with autism the resources and access they need
for a stable childhood.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Hien, Vice Director of
the , said that on April 8, the national
document on supporting will be introduced.

The document provides teachers, supporting
technicians, staff, and parents with comprehensive knowledge of autism, its symptoms,
and methods to address its behaviour patterns.

In its next stages, the project will focus on
enhancing the capacity of key officials in communications and assisting autistic
children, and popularising knowledge amongst parents of autistic children, as well
as teachers and officials involved in educating and protecting children. This
standardisation of knowledge around autism in Vietnam will give the public a
proper insight into autism and reduce discrimination against children with
autism.

By the end of 2018, Vietnam was home to over
200,000 children diagnosed with autism. Experts noted that the number of
autistic children in Vietnam has increased rapidly, with the figure in 2007 already
50 times higher than that in 2000.

Meanwhile, Vietnam still lacks highly
professional and large-scale programmes targeting the group, while the
awareness of parents, schools, and the local communities of autistic children
has remained incomplete and widely inaccurate due to a shortage of standardised
guiding documents, they added. –VNA