Local institutions team up to promote autism awareness

Director General of MAA, Nicole Chan (right), and the CEO of the Macau Design Center, Dirco Fong

A signing ceremony was held yesterday at the Macau Cable headquarters to officiate a Memorandum of Understanding between the Macau Autism Association (MAA) and the Macau Design Center for the “Charity-Affiliated Products Incubator Project”.

The signing ceremony took place during a press conference announcing a series of events to be held across Macau for this year’s World Autism Awareness Day on April 2. The ceremony was officiated by the Director General of MAA, Nicole Chan, and the CEO of the Macau Design Center, Dirco Fong.

Under the agreement, the Macau Design Center will be able to use the copyrights of the artworks created and donated by autistic children to cooperate with local and international designers to make products for fundraising purposes.

The proceeds will be used to run workshops for autistic children and their families, as well as provide professional training for teachers and therapists.

The events will kick off on April 1 with an opening ceremony in the Studio City Celebrity Tower; featuring a unicycle show from Tsai Jey, an autistic child from Taiwan, and a performance by the Macau Cultural Center Children’s Choir, which will be attended by autistic children and their families.

On April 2, the Macau Tower, the Macau Cultural Center and the Macau Science Center will join hands with other institutions worldwide to “light it up blue”. Organizers said the blue lighting will “last for a few days or weeks” for each venue.

The blue lighting initiative is the signature campaign of Autism Speaks, a leading non-profit autism advocacy organization in the United States. Iconic landmarks around the world have previously signed up for the blue lighting campaign, including the Empire State Building in New York, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower of Shanghai and the Tokyo Tower.

Separately, the Macau International Airport and the Macau Science Center will host an exhibition of artworks by autistic children aged between three and 15 years old. The exhibition will be on display all throughout the month of April.

A training course for teachers and professionals who work with autistic children will also be held at the DSEJ on April 1, led by guest speaker Zora Cho of Taiwan; followed by a Taiwan-Macau “Parents Experience Sharing Symposium” at the Macau Science Center on April 2. The symposium will tackle pressing topics for parents of autistic children, such as their higher propensity for depression.

World Autism Awareness Day began in 2008 when international autism organizations, backed by the UN, held events to raise awareness and deepen understanding of children with autism. DB