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Tuesday 2 June 2009

Autism centre needs assistance badly

By Nathaniel Tan

Still on the road, so may not be writing much sorry, but wanted to offer quick congratulations to Dr. Mansor, Penang’s new DCM, and Pakatan’s entire election machinery.

Also, via Susan and others, I came across this appeal from a father of two autistic kids who’s looking to revive a small but vibrant autism centre that is in danger of closing.

As it happens, I was just having a conversation with two friends from uni last night about autism, one of whom spent two years working at a similar centre.

I was moved by how difficult and at times seemingly unrewarding the work can be, given the difficulty of creating emotional connections with individuals with autism.

In any case, the brave gentlemen in question runs a resource website to help people in similar situations, and here is part of his appeal (do check out the whole post) :

I am a father of 2 autistic boys age 7 and 9, they are Yong Wei Xiang and Yong Wei Jie. I am a small freelance in IT and software design, business was good before but last 2-3 years have been bad.

I send my sons to the center for last 3 months because it is free and the teacher is very experience in handling autism related issue. But that are closing down due to financial difficulties. I belief I will be able to turn it around but I need help for the first year. I am looking for angel who can donate to keep the center open for another year, thereafter I should be able to make it profitable.

I have 2 weeks to put thing together before they closed it down. 20 kids will be affected if the centre is closed down without giving them an alternative to go.

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