Apasen International’s Board of Trustees has published the charity’s annual report and accounts for April 2016-March 2017.
The charity has continued to make good progress towards our strategic objectives in the last year with a particular emphasis on expanding our work with specialist schools for children with autism and providing training to organisations addressing the skills shortage in this area.
Focus on specialist education training for autism
During 2016/2017, we delivered multiple training events to a wide variety of stakeholders and partners in Bangladesh. A highlight was conducting a specialist training course for the Government of Bangladesh’s new National Academy for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NAAND).
Mahmud Hasan, CEO of Apasen International said:
“While we are still a relatively new organisation, we believe we have established ourselves as one of the main providers in Bangladesh of specialist training for professionals and parents addressing the needs of children with autism, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and other special needs. We were particularly honoured to deliver a Master Trainers course on autism and NDDs for teaching training professionals for the Bangladesh Government’s new National Academy for Autism. We look forward to supporting this innovative and ambitious initiative in the future.”
Directly benefiting the lives of children with disabilities from poorest households
Apasen International also continued to fundraise and support our flagship project – Neurodevelopmental Disability Centres (NDD Centres) with BRAC in Sylhet and Dhaka. During the last year, more than 40 children (aged 5-16 years) with NDDs, their primary carers (mostly mothers), and wider families had access to two specialist local centres where they received health and education services tailored to the needs of their child (pictured above).
Progress reports showed that children regularly attending the centres experienced marked improvements in behaviour, speech and communication, basic literacy and numeracy, life skills, and overall health. Additionally, their parents had improved care and therapy skills so they could support their child at home. There was greater community acceptance and understanding of disabilities such as autism, Downs syndrome, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and learning disabilities in the wider communities as a result of the centre’s activities.
Apasen International is a small charity that is completely reliant on support from the public and like-minded partners. The organisation benefits from the great depth of expertise of its sister organisation, Apasen, that generously supports its sister organisation with technical expertise from its senior staff as well as donated office space for its fundraising and communication activities.
