The Autism Art Gallery is something that is very close to my heart. As some of you may know, I have an autistic son Jonathan who was diagnosed with late-onset of autism when he was 5 years. That was in the late 1990s when there was not much awareness of autism and facilities for people with autism in Kuching where we are staying were non-existence. In fact, one major reason that we bought our first home computer then was to search the internet for information on autism and to connect with other people on the world wide web.
To cut the story short, my wife Roselind and I founded the Sarawak Autistic Association together with 2 other families. My wife was the founding President while I was the founding Vice-President. We did not want to send Jonathan to the School For The Mentally Handicapped, and since there was no other alternative available, we decided to set up one ourselves. We started with nothing and the three families had to fork out money from our pockets to send the first teacher for training in Kuala Lumpur and to pay her salary.
Fast forward to today, the Association (the name of the association was changed to Kuching Autistic Association) now has its own buildings and offers services to more than 100 students. Never in my wildest dreams, would I imagine that the Association which we built from scratch would be able to achieve this level of success.
The Association runs the KAA Educational and Resource Center which offers a wide range of services to people with autism. Because most of the services are conducted on a one-to-one basis, the major expense of the Centre is staff salaries. The fees paid by the students are not able to cover the cost of running the center and so every year we need to raise funds to cover this shortfall.
The Autism Art Gallery is one of the ways that the Association uses to raise funds. The other major source of funds is our food fair. However, due to Covid, the Association's food fair has not been held for the past two years. During this pandemic, sale proceeds from the Gallery were the major contributor of funds to the Association. In 2021, the Association managed to raise over RM100,000 (USD23,000) from the Gallery.
The concept behind the Autism Art Gallery is not only to raise funds but to showcase the creative arts of work done by people with autism. Our tagline "See The Ability" aims to create awareness that people with autism have talents and abilities and are able to contribute to society in their own unique way. The Gallery also hopes to nurture the students to improve their skills and to be able to express themselves better through the art that they have created. A lot of people with autism are either non-verbal or have limited speech. Therefore by expressing themselves through their artwork, they are able to offer insights into their thinking and identity to society at large. This is also a way of building their self-esteem and self-confidence and helps them to lead dignified lives.
The Gallery has been in operation for the past 2 years. Last month, the Association invited the Deputy Premier of Sarawak, the Honorable Prof Dato Sri Dr. Sim Kui Hian to officially launched the Autism Art Gallery. This is a milestone for the association and we hope that the publicity will raise more awareness about autism.
I would also like to thank the London Stock Exchange Group Foundation for its generous support for the Gallery. The cost of renovating and furnishing the Gallery was sponsored by the Foundation. The fact that the Association was able to grow by leaps and bounds was due to the support that we had received from the community in Kuching throughout the years. I hope that the community will continue to support us in transforming the lives of people with autism.
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