Walk to raise awareness on autism

GEORGE NEWS - The non-profit organisation Binah will celebrate National Autism Awareness Month by hosting its second annual Big Walk in the Garden Route Botanical Garden.

National Autism Awareness Month presents an excellent opportunity to promote awareness and acceptance of autism and to make people aware of the tens of thousands facing an autism diagnosis each year.

The Big Walk, which is for the whole family, will take place on Sunday 15 April at 16:00.

Everyone who finishes will receive a medal.

Binah ("understanding") aims to inform people about children with special needs, so that society can better understand and accept them.

The founder members of Binah have themselves lived through the challenges families with special-needs children face as they were raising their autistic sons.

Director of Binah, Mariza van Deventer, said, "The fact that so many people attended our first Big Walk was a clear message of acceptance. We experienced a true sense of community when participants shared their stories with one another at the event."

The Garden Route community supported this initiative with great enthusiasm last year.

This year the business sector is throwing its weight behind the campaign.

Citadel Wealth Management and Outeniqua Plastics contributed greatly, while Geronimo Spur are funding a lot of Spur vouchers that participants can win, and Oasis Water will see to it that there will be no dry throats.

Thanks to the kind support of Interface by Goji PR and Events and the Big Walk's media partner, George Herald, the message of autism awareness will be spread extensively.

The theme of the walk is "Proudly out of the box" to support the theme announced by Autism South Africa.

In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, "On this World Autism Awareness Day, let us all play a part in changing attitudes toward persons with autism and in recognising their rights as citizens who, like everyone else, are entitled to claim those rights and make decisions for their lives in accordance with their own will and preferences."