Autism South Africa receives a sizable donation from the American Society of SA

15 April 2013, Braamfontein; Autism South Africa receives a donation of R50 000 from the American Society of SA (ASSA).

The funds were handed over during a ceremony hosted at Autism South Africa’s offices at the Children's Memorial Institute in Braamfontein on Monday morning. The event was attended by key members of the ASSA and Autism South Africa respectively.

The donated funds will be used by Autism South Africa to facilitate five two-day workshops in Limpopo Province, each workshop catering to 30 educators, therapists, and parents. The will essentially produce roughly 150 upskilled individuals in the province who will be better equipped to provide a suitable support to those effected by Autism.

The ASSA has a long tradition of benevolent works in SA, and this was continued recently as they endeavoured to host a silent auction in order to raise funds for Autism South Africa. Local business “came to the party” by donating a range of products and services which were auctioned by the ASSA at their annual cocktail reception held at the US Consul General Residence in Houghton. The function was a huge success and the funds raised constitute the highest value donation that the ASSA have ever been able to donate to any single beneficiary.

Some of the most notable donations on auction were provided by Sabi Sabi, Victor Lidchi, Mount Grace Country House & Spa, Saxon Boutique Hotel Villas & Spa, Legends Lodge Group, and Crown Relocation who sponsored the event by providing catering. Our sincere thanks go out to all benefactors who contributed to making this donation possible.

Autism South Africa teams up with the Department of Community Dentistry

March 2013, Autism South Africa teams up with the Department of Community Dentistry to provide free dental care for children with autism.

Tooth decay (Dental Caries) continues to be a major public health problem across all ages, gender, races and social classes in South Africa. The current burden of oral diseases requires extensive resources that are simply not affordable in our country. Children and adults with special needs groups continue to be marginalised in terms of access to health resources and facilities in South Africa. For oral health, there is anecdotal evidence that special needs groups are at an even greater disadvantage due to their unique needs. It is against this background that the Department of Community Dentistry has undertaken to address the oral health needs of special needs groups in Groups in Gauteng.

Children and adults with Autism provide unique challenges to Dentistry in that the management and treatment of these patients requires time, patience, skills and resources that is far in access of what is currently available in the dental public health facilities in our country. Dentistry is one of the most expensive services to deliver and requires extensive resources especially for children with special needs as even the most basic types of treatment often need to be done under general anaesthesia.

The partnership with Autism South Africa and their feeder schools in Gauteng will serve as a pilot project that seeks to introduce oral health services via mobile facilities at school and /or institutions that serve the needs of children and adults with Autism. This will be a team approach involving teachers, therapists, and oral health professionals. The focus will be on prevention and oral health promotion so that these children (and adults) can maintain a healthy mouth. Additionally, we will attempt through a team approach to undertake basic oral health treatment in the state of the art mobile dental clinic which has been kindly sponsored by one of our partners in oral health care, Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK). We have dedicated a Friday morning session for this program and it will entail our team visiting the Autism School at the TMI Hospital to deliver oral health services to the children and adults with Autism. This initiative has the support of the Chief Dentist in the Johannesburg Metro.  We hope that this program will serve as a model for other institutions and countries that also have similar challenges in terms of special needs groups. 

Inaccurate Non-Compliant classification

It is with great disappointment that Autism South Africa (ASA) notes the fact that they are classified as “Non-Compliant” by the Department of Social Development (the Department). This is in spite of the Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) Report which the National Director, Jill Stacey, submitted in early December 2012. Apparently the staff of the Department “have not yet read” the report submitted for 2012.

ASA has been 100% compliant with all NPO regulations since 2000, without having missed filing annual reports, or having ever received queries from the Department with regard to the contents of these reports.

It is distressing in the extreme; how would this classification be interpreted by potential corporate benefactors? This could have an adverse effect on Autism South Africa, upsetting the already fragile fiscal lifeline that ASA is holding onto so desperately.

The Department of Social Development, for varying reasons, has always turned down funding applications submitted by Autism South Africa. This has effectively left ASA (who’s beneficiaries are chiefly severely impoverished children with autism across South Africa) to appeal to the private sector for funding in the complete absence of State consideration. It is our beneficiaries that will suffer from the adverse effect of this classification; a classification which has been applied without regard for the facts and figures detailed in ASA Annual Reports.