While autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is still an unacceptable matter for many, Society for the Welfare of Autistic Children (SWAC) has been working heart and soul for the last 18 years to develop quality education, training and variety of services and facilities for individuals with autism, reports UNB.

It has a plan to build a SWAC Village and its own campus with residential facility to ensure a safe, caring enjoyable environment where kids with autism can thrive and grow towards independence.

There are a number of autism schools in our country, but the SWAC school is a bit different from them. The starting story makes it more special. The school started its journey on February 3, 2000, when a group of five mothers of autistic children found that there is no school for their children.

They finally decided to start a special school to provide quality education for the individuals with ASD, said SWAC secretary Sabina Hossain who has also received the national award for being a successful person working on autism.

Sabina, one of the five founder parents of SWAC, said they started their journey from a two-room apartment in Lalmatia with six autistic children. And now SWAC has a total of 115 students among whom 15 are from underprivileged section and 100 are autistic individuals with 36 adult ones and 64 kids.

Shifted in a rented building, SWAC is working to create mass awareness among people as well as providing education, training and rehabilitation individuals with autism.

While talking about her award, Sabina said it is not an individual achievement, rather it is an achievement of the entire school and every student, teacher, staff and guardian is part of the achievement.

Another founder parent, Subarna Chakma, told UNB that it was never easy to carry on the struggle. Initially, people even many doctors had little knowledge about this disorder. Neighbours also used to complain against the school because of the noises of children.

Mentioning financial problem as one of the biggest challenges, she said, there is no funding or financial support from the government. The activities of SWAC mostly depend on individual donations.

"The student teacher ratio during training is 2:1. There're three teachers and one staff for each six students," she said adding that though the organisation is running from 50 per cent deficit, yet they are working hard to provide proper education and therapy to the children.

About the activities and achievement of the school, Sabina said this school is not only giving education to the autistic individuals but also providing training for both teachers and guardians.

In January 2009, the organisation arranged the first-ever regional conference in Bangladesh on autism where several countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, America, and Finland participated, she said.

The organisation is also working to involve its students in mainstream education system. Three of the students in 2015 and 2016 passed the Primary Education Completion Examination while another student, Adil Haque, received international award for his paintings as well as had several solo art exhibitions with his extraordinary artworks, said the committee

members.

They said it has also provided a job to one of its adult individual after making him able to work independently.

SWAC is also operating a small school called 'Centre for Inspiration' for children with autism and other disabilities from underprivileged and indigenous community of Rangamati Hill District in Rangamati as well.

Currently, 15 underprivileged students are getting special education, food, transportation, school uniform and medical allowance without any fees.

Among 100 autistic students, eight are from low-income families and do not need to pay any fee. The rest of them has to give a minimum fee which is from Tk 6,000 to Tk 7,500, said SWAC Deputy Director Mofijul Islam.

Mofizul Islam, who has been working here since 2002, said an attachment grows gradually while spending time with these children.

"Generally, people take little interest in working for such children. Though this job doesn't offer much money, but the love and respect one gets from the children and their guardian is unimaginable," he added.