Photo credit: srilankabeaches4u

If you are into eco-tourism, don’t miss Sri Lanka.  Unesco World Heritage sites, safaris, glorious beaches, tea plantations, animal sanctuaries, ancient temples and the list goes on. It’s also where I got to eat delicious hoppers, lamprais rice, awesome curries, met some of the most friendliest people ever and got chased by an angry elephant (true story). I haven’t been back recently, but I hope to visit Sri Lanka again if possible. I’m even more pleased to hear that autism awareness is increasing there and resources are becoming more available to families in Sri Lanka.

Colour My World (CMW) will have their second annual Autism Awareness Charity Run/Walk on the 13th of October 2012. CMW is a charity organisation initiated by like-minded individuals dedicated to utilize their experience in working with children with special needs, as a small effort to bring about awareness and to help these vulnerable children in Sri Lanka.

Come and join us on Saturday 13th of October for the Autism Awareness Charity Run/Walk!
Venue             : Independance Square – Colombo
Time                : Be there by 07.30 am
Registration   : click here to download the registration form. For quick-on-line registration click here

The primary goal of this event is to bring about awareness on autism amongst the larger population of Sri Lanka, including teachers and health care workers and to introduce programmes such as the Son-Rise ®Programme as powerful and effective methods of helping children and adults diagnosed as autistic.

Furthermore, on a larger scale, we wish to provide necessary facilities in Sri Lanka for parents to receive the required start-up training to adopt the Son-Rise®Programme in their homes at a lower cost rather than having to travel to America. Keeping this in mind, we initially wish to also raise funds in order to bring a child-facilitator from the Autism Treatment Center of America. This professional trainer will assist in training parents and their volunteers and provide necessary information on vital skills necessary to help their children and to improve their quality of life.

We hope that this event would not only create awareness but would also become a platform for parents, teachers and health care workers to meet and share information and expertise with one another. Through the event last year many parents having children with Autism approached Colour My World in order to seek help and receive information as many did not know where to go and what to look for.

Hence, with part of the funds received last year, Colour My World has made arrangements to organize a series of teleseminars for parents who wish to learn the basic principles of the the Son-Rise ® Program and how this could benefit children diagnosed as Autistic. This will be conducted by our parent support group “The Dolphins” under supervision of Mrs. Desiree Jayakody, autism advocate in CMW.  With the parent support group we hope to create an environment where parents with Autistic children can meet and exchange notes and share information with one another. We should not forget that parents of autism children need support as much as their children do in order to cope with the daily stresses of knowing how to help their children better.

Special thanks to my friend Desiree Jayakody, founder of The Dolphins, an autism parents support group based in Sri Lanka.