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Published: July 21st 2009
Hello! Having Knowledge for People work with Autism Care Nepal (ACN) and the families has been more amazing than we could have imagined! I tear up just thinking about it. The center is now jointly run by many parents, all who have a child with autism. ACN is completely funded by the parents. They have managed to rent a house for ACN for 12 months to start, but they are still in great need of trained therapists and supplies in general. I am so impressed with how far they have come, but there is a long way to go. I really wish Knowledge for People had more funds and we had more time and people to provide the extensive, intensive training they deserve. That is our future goal. We have found that parents are benefitting greatly from the strategies we have provided them to help to improve the quality of life for their children, however, they would benefit even more from having consistent trained professionals there all the time.
We have worked with so many wonderful children and parents! We came here under the impression we would be working with 12 children. Well, 12 turned to 24, which turned into
28 children!! I have to say, we have all agreed that this is the hardest we have ever worked! The reason the number of kids jumped so quickly is because Hem and Kalpana published an article in a Nepali Gazette a day or 2 before we arrived and the phone calls came flooding in. We have 3 stations that the kids and parents rotate through. Speech/language and social skills, ABA and DIR Floortime, and sensory motor integration. Dori and I have seen many of these kids respond so well to the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), which is a program that teaches non-verbal kids to communicate with pictures and kids who have some verbal language to increase vocabulary and form complete sentences. We have also seen success with the use of social stories. Tanya and Zahida have seen some great sensory motor break-thru's and Ann Marie has seen much success showing the parents the ABA and Floortime techniques. Blaine has been our patient, awesome photographer and timekeeper.
The families have shown so much appreciation and graciousness! Before ACN they had no one to turn to and some of them have only learned of ACN during the last few days.
We have had so much great feedback from the parents about what they have learned from us 😊 The language barrier has been somewhat difficult at times, but the translators have helped tremendously.
Last night Hem and Kalpana had us over to their home for dinner. Their home is beautiful and the food was delicious! In addition to helping families with their children, we have developed friendships and for that we are very happy.
On the way to the center this morning we were in a taxi behind a school bus in a narrow ally. The school bus hit some dangling electrical wires and all of the wires came tumbling down onto the bus and our car. The wires fell off of our car, but we had no idea if the wires were live! It was scary for a minute, but we got out of the car and no one was hurt. Crazy.
This evening we are heading to a town called Nagarkot, which is 1 1/2 drive up into the mountains. There is a solar eclipse in the morning and we get to see it from the Himalayas!!!!!! Then, back to work early afternoon.
Hope
all is well with everyone!
p.s. If you want to donate or know someone who would like to, go to http://knowledgeforpeople.org
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Kelly
non-member comment
Goosebumps!!
I got goosebumps when reading your post. Sounds like things are going so well!! Keep making a difference Nikki!!!