USM, PENANG, 27 February 2017 – The Social Work Club at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) recently held a programme with autistic kids at the National Autism Society (NASOM) premises in Butterworth, Penang.

According to the Project Director, Ain Fariha, this programme is aimed at providing awareness to students who are involved to understand the meaning of respect towards the disabled and to eliminate negative perception towards people with disabilities.

“It is hoped this programme will also eliminate the communication gap and boundaries between autistic children and the students, thus bringing them closer,” she said.

Meanwhile, the President of the USM Social Work Club, Syahirah Bastari said that this programme is intended to provide exposure to the social work students to work with the children with autism and to help them gain a better understanding of autistic children, who also have the potential to contribute to the development of the nation one day.

“Clearly this programme is able to raise the awareness of the students, as a follow-up to the knowledge and information learned and obtained in the classrooms,” she added.

12 students from USM, together with 17 autistic children and youngsters were involved in this programme.

Accompanying the students at the programme were two Social Work lecturers from the USM School of Social Sciences, Dr. Mohd Taufik bin Mohammad and Dr. Atikah Nur binti Mohamed Hussin.

Text: Evelyn Esu Dass (Intern, USM School of Communication)