{flike}

This year on 2nd of April the world celebrated the 10th annual World Autism Awareness Day. United Nations announced that the theme for this year is "Toward Autonomy and Self-Determination". As part of increasing understanding and acceptance of people with Autism, GIS marked an Autism Awareness Week from 2nd April to 6th April 2017.

Autism Awareness Week began with the whole school wearing blue ribbons to show support for the Autism community. Short films and educational videos were shown to teach students the challenges faced by people on the Autism Spectrum and the importance of acceptance. Moreover, each class created a poster based on this year’s theme which portrayed how society can break the barriers for Autism. Informative handouts were also distributed to classes to create awareness. Ahmed Azyan Ziyad from 7B addressed the students during school assembly to encourage everyone to break the stigma and discrimination related to Autism. Lastly, GIS marked the end of Autism Awareness with a grand closing during which an aerial photograph and video was taken of students and staff arranged as a piece of puzzle representing the three colours of Autism.

GIS wishes to thank the school’s Student Support Department especially Ms. Malha Shareef for planning, organizing and conducting the awareness week smoothly. GIS also thank Mr. Ibrahim Inaaz from Gi Drone Company for taking the aerial picture and the video.

In order to spread more awareness, more information on Autism Spectrum Disorder will be available for parents and teachers on the GIS Facebook page and web portal.