Children playing football at SforA school. Illustrative image (Source: SforA) HCM City (VNA) – The National Fundfor Vietnamese Children and the Phu Nhuan Jewellery company (PNJ) jointlylaunched a programme on April 2 to support autistic children in Vietnam, partof a project to raise awareness of autism in children in Vietnam.
With a budget of 10 billion VND funded by thePNJ, the five-year programme is expected to directly benefit more than 10,000families and 4,000 autistic children.
The project’s activities include the issuanceof a national document providing knowledge on autism, personnel training,communications to raise public awareness of autism, and the mobilisation ofresources for supporting children with autism.
At the launching ceremony, Cao Thi Ngoc Dung,Chairwoman of the PNJ’s board of directors, called on the community to joinhands together to give children with autism the resources and access they needfor a stable childhood.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Hien, Vice Director ofthe National Fund for Vietnamese Children, said that on April 8, the nationaldocument on supporting autistic children will be introduced.
The document provides teachers, supportingtechnicians, staff, and parents with comprehensive knowledge of autism, its symptoms,and methods to address its behaviour patterns.
In its next stages, the project will focus onenhancing the capacity of key officials in communications and assisting autisticchildren, and popularising knowledge amongst parents of autistic children, as wellas teachers and officials involved in educating and protecting children. Thisstandardisation of knowledge around autism in Vietnam will give the public aproper insight into autism and reduce discrimination against children withautism.
By the end of 2018, Vietnam was home to over200,000 children diagnosed with autism. Experts noted that the number ofautistic children in Vietnam has increased rapidly, with the figure in 2007 already50 times higher than that in 2000.
Meanwhile, Vietnam still lacks highlyprofessional and large-scale programmes targeting the group, while theawareness of parents, schools, and the local communities of autistic childrenhas remained incomplete and widely inaccurate due to a shortage of standardisedguiding documents, they added. –VNA
VNA
