Autism Class

This unit was started in the beginning of 2007 and the works going on satisfactorily. In the beginning most made a skeptical look and remarks on this new project but by the time everybody understood the importance of this kind of unit for the autistic children living in the community. The importance of this has been highly highlighted in the recent past as there has been some reports come from the medical sector saying there is a notable increase of the Autism in Sri Lanka also in the past few years.
It was started with 8 children now there are 12 first all the children were in a one class but the two teachers realized it is not an easy task so they have divided the class into two. Now the works are going on according to a planned time table. Records are being kept of the each child regularly.
In March 2007 teacher Premadasa had an opportunity to attend an important Work shop on Autism held in Colombo. This was initiated by Mr. Karu Gamage of the O I S of Colombo and funded by the Wesly College of Australia. It was organized by the Colombo University and the lectures were delivered by the two experts visited from America. Premadasa could learn a lot of the many aspects of teaching to the Autistic children in a classroom and had shared that knowledge with the staff and particularly with the two teachers. So they have got some useful ideas from him. Apart from that we have been getting helps from various people particularly from the foreign volunteers who visit the school time to time. Mrs. Charlotte, Mrs. Sally Doble of England and Mrs. Lewis of America could be named as notable visitors who visits the unit very often and help us by sharing her knowledge with us. At the moment, Mr. Bram de Veer an intern of the Avans BA College in Holland is working at the unit.

Some works and Projects being done

The lack of space has been a big problem of the school. For instance 17 classes have been conducting in a small building in a crowded manner. We have been asking a building from the well wishers and various donors. It is happy to mention here that now we have already got two big buildings. One building has already been occupied and children are going to move to the other new building on 18 of this month.
At the moment it has been decided to move six classes of about 40 children so it means that all the children and teachers get some kind of relief and do their works with a big freedom.
Making a digital Data base of the school has been a long felt need but that could not be materialized for several reasons. The main reason was the lack of know how of this. Recently we have initiated this project again as we luckily found a person who could help us on this. Mr. Bram Veer of Holland who has been working at the school at the moment has come forward to help us and now he has already initiated the project. We strongly believe this kind of Digital Data base would be helped much to the Principal and the teachers and also for the parents to get all the details of the children an specially to monitor the progress of the them and make necessary actions according to the updating Data base.

Some matters need to be resolved

How to maintain the school well and keep up all these good work has been unresolved so far and it has been a dragging issue for a long time. So far we have not been able to find a favorable answer for that important issue yet. Though this issue has been discussed with lots of people a favorable answer could not be got so far. It is quite interesting to note here that most people and NGOs we talked with so far has mentioned that normally they don’t like to pay for the utility bills of any institution as a policy. Also, things could be get worsen as now we have to look after two new two storey buildings. It means covering the more expensive utility bills in the coming years.
Reconstructing a better play ground also has been a priority on our project plans. So far we did not embark on that as some constructions project was going on in the past. As they are now nearly coming to an end we could start the work of constructing a better playground.
Making a more spacious room for the library and the computer unit is also on the priority list.
The other issue is how to retain the helper we got after tsunami. Her salary has been paid so far by The Wesley College Australia. She has been doing a good job in the past two years but we may have to quit her job soon as the fund is going to be finished soon and nobody could be found so far.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the beginning of this short report I would like to reiterate here the school is going on quite satisfactorily but there are some important issues to get resolved soon. We are looking forward for a kind help of a well wisher, a donor or an NGO to get resolved these vital issues.

Terrance de Silva
[Behalf of the President]

The Coordinator
[Dhakshinalanka Sambodhi welfare foundation]
[9/o3/2008]
contacts
sambodhihome@gmail.com
T-+94 0914380975