Action for Autism

Now that we've been at our placements a couple of weeks, we thought it would be useful to let you know a bit more about the organisations and what we are actually doing - just in case you thought we were actually lazing on a beach in Kerala rather than doing something worthwhile!

Action for Autism was founded in 1991, by Merry Barua as a parent organisation with the goal to "put autism on the Indian map." It's mission statement is:

"To facilitate a barrier free environment; to empower families of persons with autism, and to act as a catalyst for change that will enable persons with autism to live as fully participating members of the community."

Awareness of autism in India has grown tremendously in the past decade and so has AFA. A few years ago, the National Centre (pictured above) opened it's doors from which it carries out assessments, invention programmes, family support services, training and lobbying.

My role is in 'organisational development' - working on a mix of budgets and finance, human resources, information systems and business processes and procedures....and then the critical part - working closely with the key employees to ensure whatever is put is place is sustainable so that come Nov 2011 when we depart to the UK all my efforts don't depart with me.

I'm still at the stage of defining and refining what areas to focus on at the moment but it's clear to me that as the activities of the organisation have successfully grown, the 'back office' support needs to reflect the changes to Action for Autism and where it is heading as an organisation.