AUTISM Welfare Centre Africa organised soccer games at Milan Stars Grounds in Motherwell NU 2 on Saturday, with the sole aim of raising awareness about autism.
Members of the community came out in numbers to get knowledge from Autism Welfare Centre Africa founder, Mazi Emeka Ochi. According to Ochi, the autism awareness campaign was supposed to have taken place in April.
“Owing to some unforeseen circumstances, we decided to postpone our autism awareness campaign until today (Saturday),” said Ochi. “The motive behind this campaign is that our people need to get knowledge on what autism is all about. Some autistic children are excluded and not regarded as people in our communities. Today, we are here to show that autistic children can play games like any others. These games have helped our people understand that if we include and accept autistic children we understand better about autism. These children need love, care, good treatment and more attention all the time. All in all, autistic children deserve to live like any other child.”
Milan Stars FC marketing officer and Woolhope Secondary School educator, Lungelo Tyamko, who helped Ochi and his centre staff members run the soccer game and organise the programme, highlighted that the condition, autism, grows with the child.
“The parents should look for signs and symptoms such as delayed speech and language development, difficulty with empathy and understanding emotions, repetitive speech or language patterns, unusual eating habits, repetitive behaviours and interests, and many more,” said Tyamko.
The final was between Rara Stars u/13 and Milan Stars u/13. Rara Stars won the game 3–0 after they defeated the hosts. Autism Welfare Centre Africa gave the winners prize money of R3 000 and a trophy, while the runners-up went home with R1 000. The teams that participated received t-shirts.
Autism Welfare Centre Africa is situated at 22 Richmond Hill Street in Central.
