By Khaila Gentle
BELIZE CITY, Tues. May 3, 2022
Autism Awareness Month concluded this past weekend with several walkathons, marathons, and motorcades taking place all over the country. The events were all a part of Light It up Blue—the month-long Autism awareness campaign spearheaded by the NGO, Autism Belize.
Throughout April, Autism Belize—and other organizations across the globe—have been helping to spread awareness and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) both virtually and in person. We spoke with Christy Almeida, the founder of Autism Belize, about the positive reception that this month’s activities, including the concluding events held on Saturday, received in the community.
Almeida told us that even from very early in the month, the support was overwhelming.
“It was really amazing to see how many people were willing to put on blue; they were using social media—that was tremendous—you know, the blue donuts, and the blue ice cream. These things took off without us even approaching some of these companies,” she said.
At the start of the campaign, Autism Belize asked that throughout April persons light their houses and businesses with blue bulbs to show support. And according to Almeida, the tremendous show of support resulted in blue lightbulbs being sold out at various hardware stores in Belize City within just one week.
Almeida also said that they encouraged companies to “teach blue” and made over twenty presentations to various businesses around the country—something which she sees as one of the campaign’s greatest successes.
“So they invited us in, organizations and companies, to give a little talk and sensitization presentation on Autism. We ended up doing twenty-two presentations in the month of April to companies. Some of them were different departments, because they were so large, and some of them were a little bit more in-depth,” she said.
Those presentations covered Autism and disability etiquette as well as sensitization towards other disorders and disabilities.
“In total, we did twenty-two [presentations] for companies and organizations, and then we ended with our countrywide event. In Corozal, they had the ‘Run, Walk, Dance Blue’, because they had the music and everything. And all of the events were really in partnership with the different town and city councils,” she stated.
Almeida expressed gratitude towards all the volunteers and other organizations that made the countrywide events possible and was particularly thankful for Payal Chulani, a young junior college student whose advocacy and volunteer work helped ensure the attendance of 150 persons at Corozal’s first-ever Autism Belize event.
Elsewhere in the country, there were marathons and walkathons, including a Walk and Glow run in Orange Walk, and a Blue 4 Autism Walk that commenced at BTL Park in Belize City and had a turnout of about 450 people.
And while this year’s Light it Up Blue campaign was a success, Almeida says that there is still more work to be done.
“Someone asked me, well, should we be promoting awareness or acceptance, and I know we’re still at the awareness stage—a lot of people still have no clue what Autism is. And that’s why this month, for our second year for the campaign, we are still focusing on awareness,” she said.
Still, however, Autism Belize is looking forward to being able to one day go much further than spreading awareness and to begin teaching about acceptance and inclusivity.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that causes varying social and behavioral challenges for those on the spectrum. Persons with ASD may communicate, interact, and even learn differently from non-autistic persons or persons who are “neurotypical”.
While it has been reported that ASD is 4.3 times more prevalent among males than among females, the reality is that Autism in women often goes undiagnosed or even misdiagnosed. Several studies have found that women often do not exhibit the stereotypical symptoms used for diagnosing Autism and they have also been found to be better able to conceal or mask their symptoms.