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[MEDIA RELEASE] UPM–GENIUS Kurnia, launch Autism Awareness Campaign during MCO

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MEDIA RELEASE

April 24, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has led Malaysians to show more compassion for one another. Autism community requires increasing attention and awareness, especially in these challenging times. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in collaboration with GENIUS Kurnia, has launched an Autism Awareness campaign by providing several awareness activities in the forms of weekly challenges to commemorate the World Autism Month.

Everyone can join in the fun at home from 20 April till 17 May by participating in four weekly challenges. The campaign is aimed to build a consciousness society that cares about autism community through interactive activities that everyone from diverse age and ethnicities can participate together.

The organizers believe that it’s a right time to reach a mass audience to create positive vibes and awareness on autism community as everyone are staying at home safely by strictly following the Movement Control Oder (MCO) due to Covid-19 pandemic. The campaign is officially launched on 20th April,2020.

Associate Professor Dr. Nurul ‘Ain Mohd Hasan, the Project Advisor and Communication Lecturer from the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication in UPM said, “Public awareness about autism is increasing in the past five years and there are more things we can do to help build the bridge between the community and the public. The Restricted Movement Order (RMO) gives us the opportunity to connect with the autism community in the forms of challenges and story-sharing sessions in the social media platform. Everyone can join in to create an educational platform and to pass time at home.”.

“Last year we organized ‘UPM Autism Fun Run’ which was a great experience and the fund collected was awarded to GENIUS Kurnia to help improve the centre’s facilities. This year, as a consequence effort we are doing an online campaign to create awareness and to raise fund for GENIUS Kurnia to enable them to continue providing high quality and excellent education as well as early intervention to the children with autism in order to prepare and train them for the mainstream schools. We believe Malaysians can always find opportunities to help and be involved with the children and families of Autism and thus we are continuing our support this year”, she added.

UPM and GENIUS Kurnia hope to garner more funds from the corporate organizations and individuals in order to continue educate and contribute to the wellbeing of children with autism to make sure they are not abandoned due to their physical disorder.

Associate Professor Dr. Hasnah Toran, Director of GENIUS Kurnia stated that, “We’re glad that UPM has come forward and raise fund via this online Weekly Challenges launched for the wellbeing of our children and their families which mark the second year of collaboration with UPM, following last year’s ‘UPM Autism Fun Run’. We hope more corporate organizations will come forward to help us out by awarding some funds as it would be very much beneficial for our children’s education”.

Weekly challenge 1:

  • Draw a creative painting or shoot a short video clip on information relevant to COVID-19 or how to stay safe during this crucial time of MCO.
  • Post it in your social media platforms mainly Facebook and Instagram with hashtags #UPM4Autism and #SemarakAutisme #StaySafeAtHome
  • Tag @GeniusKurniaOfficial and @UPM_for_autism in your respective posts
About GENIUS Kurnia

GENIUS Kurnia is an early intervention centre for children with autism and their families. GENIUS Kurnia provides a high quality early intervention and education to children with autism to prepare them for the mainstream schools and empowering the parents for them to provide appropriate care giving to nurture their children’s development. Intervention strategies in GENIUS Kurnia incorporate evidence-based practice with the cooperation between the transdisciplinary groups and active participation of parents.

GENIUS Kurnia provides three main programs which are early intervention program, preschool program and community education. Early Intervention Program is to enhance basic skills of children aged 6 and below and prepare them for the preschool programme. During the sessions, parents are trained by interventionists to carry out the intervention on children. Our Preschool Program is to prepare children with autism to enter mainstream classes in Year 1. Community Education Program includes training workshop for parents, allied health professional & medical professional, university students and general publics.

**All previous posts about COVID-19 here: https://sciencemediacentremalaysia.com/tag/covid-19/

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