One in 100 children is born today in France with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The High Health Authority therefore estimates that approximately 100,000 young people under the age of 20 and nearly 600,000 adults are autistic in France. This Saturday April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Many events are organized in France to raise awareness and help understand this disorder. On this occasion, everyone is invited to wear blue, as a pledge of support for the cause. In Cherbourg, the association “Autism Lower Normandy” will be present throughout the day in the Galerie d’Auchan and on Place Charles de Gaulle (market place). In addition, several public buildings in France and around the world will be illuminated in blue, including the town hall of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and the delegated municipalities.
Autism is not a flu, it is not a disease, you will not catch it
Less than 20% of autistic people today have access to the world of work. Michèle Siard is vice-president of the association “Autisme Basse Normandie” in the Manche department and mother of Maël, 22, non-verbal autist. Today she challenges the presidential candidates: “We need financial and human resources. I fought for my son’s education and I am still fighting to integrate him into the world of work. Autistic people do their job very well. He gives 100%. Come talk to them, autism is not a flu, it’s not a disease, you’re not going to catch it”
Portrait of Thomas, so-called high-functioning autist (asperger)
– Katia Lautrou
Thomas works for the Home Nursing Service (SSIAD) in Cherbourg. “If I decided to become a caregiver, it was to help others after the attacks in Paris” so Thomas can’t bear to hear that autistic people lack empathy “it’s an insult, it’s as if we were called psychopaths, you can imagine… it hurts”. And he goes on, tells his passion for TV series, this is the 18th season of Grey’s Anatomy. Unbeatable, he asks questions that he answers himself. If his handicap is not visible, in his work Thomas, without a filter, hides nothing. While speaking, the young man then begins to precisely align a sugar box with its lid. The gaze of others, he learned to live with “I don’t care about other people’s eyes, I learned that whatever we say we are judged anyway, so if we had to spend our lives worrying about what people say to us, we would stop living.” Thomas also wants to talk about the employment of disabled people, the education of autistic people, so he wants to address the presidential candidates: _”I would like us to be treated in a more human way that we are less infantilized, we have the right to respect.” Next year Thomas wants to go back to school to become a nurse “if I am given the opportunity, oh by the way, say that I don’t need to be cured, just need to evolve in our society.”_
Presence of the association from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Place Charles de Gaulle (Cherbourg market square) but also in the Auchan gallery with circus entertainment in the morning (from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
On these places sales of cakes, make-up activity and various creative activities.
You can also make donations to 26 residence center rue d’Abbosville in Equeurdreville