Around 1,000 people, including nearly 405 people with autism, participated in the fourth Vietnam Autism Awareness Day (VAAD) held in Vietnam's northern province of Nam Dinh on March 30-31, to respond to the World Autism Awareness Day (April 2).The highlight of the event was a range of sporting activities for people with autism. Autistic children participated in therapeutic games, swimming, running, and some other sports.
VAAD features numerous activities targeting social integration for people with autism in Vietnam. Photo: VAN fan page
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At the fourth VAAD, many activities have been held, such as introducing an overview of policies for people with autism, early detecting and interventing program A365 - smart care for children with autism, specialized education program for autistic children in Vietnam, activities and social work for autistic children in Vietnam, introducing project of Autism Mapping - Asian Pacific Disability Development Organization's program on data development and description of ASEAN countries on autism.
In the evening of April 2, several buildings and structures in Vietnam were lit up in blue in a show of support to austistic people.
Nhan Dan newspaper reported that in 2018, at the talk "The autistic children in Vietnam", Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) Nguyen Thi Ha emphasized that autism spectrum disorder is increasingly widespread with the diagnostic rate in children rising year by year in all countries and regions in the world.
Vietnam has not had an official research on the number of autistic children, but according to MoLISA’s preliminary statistics, there are about 200,000 people with autism. And in fact, the number of autistic children has been increasing since 2000.
Since last year, Vietnam Children Sponsorship Fund under the MoLISA and Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) co-organized the project "Raising autism awareness in Vietnamese children".
The program is implemented in five years (2018 - 2022) with the goal of raising awareness on autistic children and encouraging community to support them and provide a basis for policy recommendation for autistic children in Vietnam.
According to the Vietnam Autism Network (VAN) fan page, VAN is a network gathering parents, families, and individuals with autism who are interested in and have activities related to autism. In its early days, on April 2, 2016, the first VAAD was held in Hanoi, bringing hope to thousands of families with autistic children in Vietnam for a better future regarding integration.
The second event took place in 2017 in Ho Chi Minh City, with the participation of celebrities and hundreds of families with autistic children. And the third one was organized in Bac Ninh province with numerous activities meaningful to autistic people.
Today, autism is not only a health issue but also a matter of development. If people with autism are not identified and provided help in developing social skills and community involvement at the early stage, they can later become isolated and a burden to their family and society, the fan page said.
The followings are a number of pictures drawn by children all over the country, who enthusiastically participated in 400+ loving card campaign on the Facebook launched to send love to autistic children:
