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Operations Manager with the Barbados Council for the Disabled, Roseanna Tudor; Speech-Language Pathologist with the Council, Sue McMillan; and Co-Founder of the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, Chesterfield Brewster, having a run with some of the children in attendance at the World Autism Awareness Day event.

World Autism Awareness Day celebrated

 

AS part of efforts locally to raise public awareness about Autism, the Barbados Council for the Disabled on Saturday held a beach picnic.
 
Speech-Language Pathologist with the Council, Sue McMillan, speaking about the Maria Holder Memorial Trust-sponsored event which was held at Brownes Beach, said it was the brainchild of one of the parents. 
 
“I run a programme in Barbados called ‘The More Than Words Programme’ and it is a training programme for caregivers and parents who have children with autism. Last year, one of the families in the programme said one of the big struggles they face here in Barbados is being able to go out in public with their children and have people be accepting and tolerant of their children if they are having difficulty [or] if they are having a tantrum. They wanted to do something to be visible in the community as a group of families and they wanted to be able to bring their children out and people would just see their children having a wonderful time together.”
 
Giving her support for the afternoon’s proceedings, Roslyn Hurley, Special Envoy for Persons with Disabilities, said it was a wonderful idea. 
 
“I find that so many people are still lost about what is autism and you need to bring that greater public awareness about autism, so this is an excellent way to do so.”
 
Looking ahead to next year’s plans, McMillan said the group is “hoping to work with Parliament to hopefully light up the Parliament building in blue because on World Autism Awareness Day every year, significant landmarks all over the world are lit up in blue lighting for that night of World Autism Awareness Day… [Also] as part of that hope for next year, we are hoping to do an awareness campaign going along with that as well”.
 

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