AsIAm: Irish charity asks families at home to get involved in World Autism Day

AsIAm is Ireland’s national autism charity, and is asking all of us to have some fun to mark the day and raise money

Irish charity AsIAm has called for the public to get involved in their World Autism Day campaign, by having some fun with paper planes at home.

Their #FlyforAutism campaign is asking all of us stuck at home to show their support — simply make a paper plane (as fancy as you like) and post a video of its most impressive flight on your social media channels with the hashtag #FlyforAutism, tagging your friends to get involved too.

Of course, the main point of the challenge is to raise money for a worthy cause, so make sure to text ASIAM to 50300 to donate €4 to the charity.

According to AsIAm, the current pandemic can raise significant challenges to people who have autism. Factors that are very important to those with autism, like routine, structure and reliability have all but disappeared in the current climate, which can prove very difficult.

In a recent survey conducted by the charity, 70% of family members of those with autism reported the crisis as being “hard” or “very” hard to manage. 78% of family members did not think their autistic family member would cope with the requirement to self-isolate, and 63% of autistic people were finding it difficult to restrict how often they went out.

AsIAm are doing a huge amount of work to support those with autism during this time, and have implemented a number of measures to aid them through this time. There are support webinars available on their website, having a dedicated staff member to deal with queries related to Covid-19, and liaising with the HSE and An Garda Síochana to advocate for support for people with autism in the current measures.

World Autism Day is now in its 13th year, and fundraising is more important than ever. Get involved, get your friends involved, and celebrate the day.

Read more: What it’s really like living with Aspergers

Read more: ‘I am tired of people saying I don’t look or sound autistic. Attitudes need to change’

Read more: My child and autism: ‘I felt sick knowing that something was wrong but I didn’t know what’