A safe and friendly learning centre for the children with Autism.
“Friends of Parents of Children with Autism (FPCA)” was founded by Mrs. Elina Bajracharya Tuladhar and a team of enthusiastic parents of children with Autism. FPCA is catering service to 9 children till date. Mrs. Elina Bajracharya whose own daughter is a child with Autism, took the initiative to establish this learning centre after crossing a tiring phase while seeking proper diagnosis and support for her child, and realising the dire need of additional number of such support system in Nepal. As already mentioned several times in our home page, there is a huge gap of services needed by the children with Autism and their parents/families/caretakers in Nepal. This is the reason why, Friends of Parents of Children with Autism envisions extending its services to as many numbers of people/children with Autism as possible in future. FPCA is running its day-care and learning centre with the following goals and objectives and will work on every possibility to expand beyond the services and support it is providing currently.

Project goal

  • To provide care and support for the people/children with Autism.
  • To create learning environment for the people/children with Autism.
  • To develop a safe live in shelter/hostel for children with Autism who don’t have family and/or social support system.
  • To work with existing professionals and institutions working for the people/children with Autism. Knowledge sharing
  • To provide trainings to professionals and create more human resource to work in the sector of Autism
  • To work for raising awareness about the issues related to Autism. Public awareness, social awareness
  • To provide support to the families of people/children with Autism

Activities of FPCA

  • Fine motor skills
  • Gross motor skills
  • Music and dancing but not music therapy
  • Exercises
    • Mental exercises (beading for concentration, puzzle, and matching exercises (pictures and object etc.), sequencing the blocks. 
    • Physical exercises – occupational therapy (head massage for veins), hammock, weight vest, to address the Sensory needs

Daily activities

Every morning the children start their day with assembly from prayers, attendance, marking calendar, some physical exercises then a play (with a toy).

Then the children are taken to their table work. Each child has his/her own desk with his/her name on it and they are kept separately in different rooms so that they do not get distracted. Table work is for half an hour to 1 hour depending upon child’s sitting habit and capability on concentration. During table work, the teachers/caretakers implement the Individual Education Plan designed and prepared according to each child’s capability. A qualified special educator makes the IEP for each child, with the help from ACN (Autism Care Nepal) society.

When a child masters on the tasks given for them on their IEP, s/he gets upgraded / changed giving them a new benchmark by a special educator. After the table work, the children are engaged in some group activities and free play (like swing, slide, ball, bicycle ride so on).

Then they are served Tiffin. At present, each parent/sibling/caretaker brings some snacks/ meal from home for their children. Heating facility is provided at the centre. The children are given warm milk or tea with some light snacks from the kitchen in the centre. A cooking stove with gas and some utensils with crockeries has been arranged to meet the need of providing warm meal and drinks. Pure / clean drinking water is also provided.

Short Term Plan of FPCA

Currently; FPCA is operating a day-care center for the children with Autism where the children play, learn and interact with each other, teachers and caretakers, who are in fact either parent (s) or sibling (s) of these Autistic children. At present, we have 1 trained teacher at FPCA , qualified and trained specially for children with Autism and others are the mothers and a sister of a child with Autism working as volunteers in this organization. We all are trained from Autism Care Nepal Society.

Individual Education Plan (IEP) is developed for these children. These IEPs are discussed among the teacher and caretakers, and then implemented on these children for their overall development. The IEP differs to every single child depending upon his/her capability. It includes tasks on developing their fine motor skill, gross motor skill, Imitations, identifications, communication skill etc. Role-plays, messy plays, music and dance and turn taking group activities are also included to help children boost their talents and skills.

As the number of children with Autism is increasing in Nepal and there is “NO OTHER” such organization that supports these children (except from ACN which is also in saturation situation now), FPCA envisions to take in more children, at least a group of 10 to create a school environment. This will also help the children with Autism and their family/parents/caretakers, who otherwise, will have great challenge in taking care of their children. In order to run such a school with said number of children, FPCA needs at least 5 trained adults as teachers and 2 helpers (Aayadidis). Depending upon the availability of resources, both financial and human, FPCA plans to extend its services to as many numbers of children with Autism and their family/parents/caretakers as possible in future.

The future plan of FPCA is to develop this learning centre to a full-fledged live-in shelter/hostel for the people/children with Autism. 

Our Team

Elina Bajracharya

Chairperson

Jyoti Aryal

Vice Chairperson

Sajita Karki

member

Reena Bajracharya

member

Friends of Parents
of Children with Autism

make a donation

Swoyambhu Kathmandu, Nepal
(+977) (1) 403 8016
(+977) 9860 291 853 / 9849 989 475

info@fpca.org.np

Photos contributed by Fauzi Djauhari and Suraj Ratna Shakya.