Autism Village Project

Knowledge Collection Social Innovation
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The “Autism for Help Village Project” Trust will bring adequate educational, therapeutic, medical, vocational, and other assistance to the unserved, autistic children/peoples, and their families and caregivers, in the communities of south India.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

The community in south India is facing a huge challenge in the field of autism. Diagnosis is often late, ignorance is rampant, help exists in too few places, is too costly, or is not available at all. The result is the children with autism in south India, unless rich, get little or no help. In autism early diagnosis, early interventions and the best possible kinds of treatment and therapy are the best hope for the children. My project would address this gap and close this need.

How will this project solve this problem?

We will start a school for autistic children. It will offer the best help available, sponsored with donations so that the children can afford it. We will purchase land and start a GFCF farm for food, vocational training, and raising money

Potential Long Term Impact

In the Autism for Help Village, the community of Autistic Children, parents and caregivers will receive long-term support, acceptance, and inclusion. The surrounding community benefits from increased job opportunities, food security, & understanding.

Project Message:  You have started a trip, you have a long way to walk, many of us want to share that trip with you, we can keep learning together at the Village of Equity [the Autism for Help Village], Koshy.

  • Ternura Rojas, Ph.D, Pharmacist, Expert: environment/food science

Project location: Bangalore, India but it has universal and European application.

http://autismvillageproject.blogspot.com

@terrestrian on twitter

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Well, well, well…

… if it isn’t my old fellow EVOKE agent A.T. Koshy. Good to see you on Edgeryders, and good to see you have not let go of your dream of an Autism for Help village. I say the blog says “the project is now live” as of August last year, but then there is no further information…

Keep going. If you don’t give up you are bound to get somewhere at some point.

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autism village project

i never gave up alberto

thanks for the donation

i registered the trust

got a bank account

now am trying for permissions to offer tax deductions to indian residents and  alsoto get money into country

damn tough things move at asnails pace in my country

cant thank you and noemi enough for the help and attention

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Long term perspectives of an active life

Hello. Good luck with your project!

I do not know if this can be useful to families of your project and also for the school project. It is more about long term perspectives, when the children grow and become adults. But it could be good material for a school mission statement, to prepare children for their active life as adults.

Recently, I read this neuroscientific paper about autism and employment, which argues that  ‘economic reasoning indicates that many neurodiverse individuals can be understood in terms other than pathologies or disorders.’ The paper by Tyler Cowen, from George Mason University, Department of Economics, is entitled ‘An economic and rational choice approach to the autism spectrum and human neurodiversity’. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1975809

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thanks

this is very interesting i have sent it already to several people and am putting it on my fb group thanks lyne

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Diversity

Hello Ampat,

I received this information from my a friend, a fantastic data base: Neurodiversity.com.

There is a section entitled ‘Regional support’, with sub-section ‘Asia’, where they list projects and resources. You could add your project there.

How is autism perceived in your country? Is it seen as a disability, or are there people in favor of seeing it as a neurological difference?

This article published in June 2011 (written in French) talks about the pride in being autistic or neurologically different ‘Fiers d’être autistes: la neurodiversité, un mouvement polémique’. I translated some bits and pieces for you. There seems to be a growing movement in English-speaking countries, in favor of “diversity”.

[My translation] "In many English-speaking countries, activist movements are challenging the representation of autism as a disease and are now considering autism as another mode of cognitive functioning with positive and creative aspects

In many English-speaking countries, groups of people are challenging the traditional representation of disability as an individual medical problem, and consider it from the socio-political prism. Researcher at INSERM, sociologist and neurobiologist, Brigitte Chamak research interests include the transformation of representations of autism. However, she said, studying historical dynamics of organizations of persons with autism at an international level reveals a profound questioning of autism as a “disease”.

Forms of activism by people with these disabilities bring to rethink the relationship between thought and society, and demonstrate new types of social movements that are set in a logic of empowerment through strong culturalist policies.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, associations of people with autism go beyond parents’ associations, since it is the very idea of the ​​disease that they challenge. Just as some people want to be recognized not as suffering from auditory hallucinations but as “voice hearers”, autistic patient groups campaign for recognition of their neurodiversity, that is to say that autism is considered as a full-fledged cognitive functioning.

For the advocates of neurodiversity, the question of suffering seems to take second place. They primarily aim to build strong policies related to identity, producing a kind of culturalist discourse about autism and autistic people, to help train them to defend their rights. According to Brigitte Chamak: “The success of the mobilization lies partly in the changes not only in how people view their life situation, but also in the opinion they have of themselves.”

At the end of this article, the author Sarah Chiche asks this question:

'Why should only oral communication be considered as legitimate? The infinite variety of modes of human functioning lead us to question our assumptions, to rethink what the word intelligent means, and what we mean by the expression human being."

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India and autism

Thanks for a place to add my project. :slight_smile:

How is autism perceived in your country? Is it seen as a disability, or are there people in favor of seeing it as a neurological difference?

In my country autism is perceived as a disability or different abledness

It is not yet perceived as neurodiversity

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India and autism

Thanks for a place to add my project. :slight_smile:

How is autism perceived in your country? Is it seen as a disability, or are there people in favor of seeing it as a neurological difference?

In my country autism is perceived as a disability or different abledness

It is not yet perceived as neurodiversity

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And no wonder

A psychologist once told me that most psychosis, if not severe and channeled, can become important assets in your professional life. For example, one o his patients was the assistant of a wealthy and important businessman. She was obsessive (I believe this is the term): she would go back to her office three times to make absolutely sure she had turned off the light. Of course, she NEVER forgot ANYTHING, and her employer loved her! She was just right for the job.

I sometimes suspect to have a very slight form of autism too. It can be awkward (for example, I tend not to recognize people’s faces, and sometimes I have to be explained that something I do is found rude by others), but I do get focus and scope in return.

My friend, the psychologist, was crazy as a March hare (we played in the same band, and I knew him well). I think that made him a better psychologist: he could empathize with his patients quite well! In the end, I think hardly anyone is “sane”, or “healthy”. I think of health as negotiatied illness: a process, not a state. Sanity is probably functional madness. So we are all in the same boat, should stop trying to conform and focus on healing those who suffer and making the best of everyone’s abilities.

Long live the Autism VIllage.

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Autism, model for other neurological differences

I forget people’s names, it can be very awkward or rude, when I try to introduce them to other people.

I misplace letter when I write, and I see letters moving places when I read them. As an accomplished adult dyslexic, I am however to read with good comprehension.

But these are very minor compared to another neurological difference, a process that has affected me for 2 years.

I am interested in autism because I see a parallel between the measures implemented, community solutions found, public policy created, etc. and what could be done for other neurological differences (that are presently emerging).

Science’s conviction in its mechanistic beliefs is built upon the supposition that the intellect is the only mental faculty that is possible for apprehending reality. The possibility that the human brain can and will evolve and change so that it can manifest more advanced faculties of mind is not given the least consideration. Science cannot, at present, envision the nature of more advanced faculties of the mind. But this inability does not affect the possibility of their development. I believe that they are currently evolving.

Recognition of the effect that lifestyle has on the evolving brain will make it clear that all aspects of life – our political, religious, economic, educational and social systems – will have to be reevaluated in light of the effect that they have on the health of the evolutionary process. As the evolution of our species proceeds, and new faculties of mind begin to appear in more and more people, science, and society, will have to expand their horizons.

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Cultural issues

Hello Ampat, hoping you are doing well.

For your information, here is the latest paper, just out of the press! Courtenay Norbury, specialising in developmental disorders (@lilacCourt) explores atypical development and cultural issues, which define neurodiversity as ideological movement. Difference or Disorder? Cultural Issues in Understanding Neurodevelopmental Disorders. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-05401-001

 
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thanks

for the neurodiversity database

that wasfantastic

it’sgood to see autism in its context, ideologically, culturally and economically , not to speak of spiritual connotations

and the debate on neurodiversity, and methods of communication linking it to education etc is very valuable

makes me see things in a different light altogether but finetuning it for an indian context would be another thing i see.

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thanks

for the neurodiversity database

that wasfantastic

it’sgood to see autism in its context, ideologically, culturally and economically , not to speak of spiritual connotations

and the debate on neurodiversity, and methods of communication linking it to education etc is very valuable

makes me see things in a different light altogether but finetuning it for an indian context would be another thing i see.

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A Correction

The globalgiving link of the three given aboove is no longer functional.

Please do not bother to visit it.