Our Mission
Our registered association was founded in 2013 by parents like myself and friends of individuals who are on the Autistic spectrum.
Our work to date has been to offer support and advice to parents of children and young people in our area of Famagusta who have been diagnosed with Autism spectrum conditions.
Since 2014, for years we have successfully run a daily summer club during the holidays providing trained staff to care for children with autism in order to support the parents who still need to work in August and have no support or help with their children.
We also deliver an outreach service supporting children at home either when parents want a break or have other specific needs.
Since 1st of September 2019 we successfully setup the first specialized Autism day care center in our area in Paralimni, the Smile Project, with young adults over 21 years of age. We recently relocated to Sotira, on 1st of November 2021to a larger building.
Finally we have organised and held a number of events to raise funds to support our work and to form the basis of our ultimate goals or creating a much needed Autism residential care in society for young adults of 21 years and over with 24 hour care.
" I don't want my eldest son to be responsible for his younger brother when my wife and i die. I am very worried who would take or could take care of him later " — Parent comment
There is no state or private provision for young adults in our area of Cyprus and this is a real concern for parents who worry for the future, as historically it has become the responsibility of brothers and sisters to support siblings after the parents have died, however - current demographic trends means that siblings are no longer finically or geographically in a position to take on this support role.
At least 3 to 4 times a year we invite parents for coffee with the goal of parents supporting and sharing their own experience amongst each other. We have found this to have an important tool for parents to look ahead in a positive manner.
We have organised a number of teacher training seminars in cooperation with the teachers association of the Famagusta area. 2018 Dr Yiannis Vouidroukas, 2019 Annie Sampsonnidis, 2020 Stratos Alexandrou. Unfortunately due to the Covid situation we could t provide a continuation of speakers however this may change in the future.
We are confidently recording existing and new cases of children who are on the Autism spectrum of our area which hopefully will be initiated by all the areas of Cyprus in future.
Since March 2020 the Covid pandemic has changed life on all levels and has effected our own charity. We shall continue to provide and continue what has been set out to do for the best outcome, team work gets results!