Bel Eau school commemorates Autism Awareness Day |22 April 2023
By wearing blue t-shirts, the children are showing support to their peers living with Autism
The month of April is dedicated to autism. With the policy of inclusivity in schools, pupils are now integrated on the normal school life for them to benefit as other pupils. Bel Eau school is among those schools who dedicated a special moment for the children living with autism.
Jane Laurette, head teacher of Bel Eau school, shared that they have four pupils at the school that have been diagnosed with the spectrum. These cases are considered as mild and they are coping and integrating well in their studies. Two of them have carers to help them better cope in school.
“We have very good support mechanism in place to support these pupils and their parents as well. The established collaboration is very important to facilitate communication and good working relationship among all the partners,” shared Ms Laurette.
Another important component is that there are also outside specialists that continuously help the pupils in their development like speech pathologist, occupational therapy and special education need coordinators.
The director general for the elderly and the disabled under the family department, Rosa Morin, commended the school for such an activity and encourages more schools to follow suit.
“Our department is new and all the time I tell my personnel that we are not supposed to look at disabilities but on the contrary celebrate their abilities. I am also a mother of a child with autism and I can feel what the mothers are going through. I am very happy that all schools are engaged with the inclusivity programme and am grateful to all stakeholders to help raise awareness on this condition,” shared Ms Morin.
The spokesperson of Seychelles Autism, Claire Gappy, exclaimed that “it took us many years of fight to share the knowledge about autism across the country. I am also happy that most of the schools even on Praslin and La Digue organised various activities around autism and next year we will organise more”.
Brad Durup and Frederick Gappy, both students living with Autism Spectrum Disorder, recited a poem and the school choir sang a few songs and chanted a prayer. The students also made a small exhibition describing ASD and how to play with them whereas the teachers had a quiz session with Ms Gappy about Autism.
The Bel Eau School also made a contribution towards the association Seychelles Autism.
The accompanying photos show some highlights of the activity at the Bel Eau school yesterday.
Vidya Gappy
