Year 2019-2020 was supposed to be a year of celebration for the Lebanese Autism Society-LAS; celebration of 20 years of pursuing our mission to provide the best services for individuals with Autism from childhood to adulthood; 20 years of hard work to establish infrastructures which cater for individuals with Autism and their families; unfortunately, the unprecedented consecutive events of this year took a big toll on us and on our country. From revolution to covid-19 to severe financial crisis, culminating with the tragic explosion of August 4 in Beirut that has destroyed the operation premises of our main project.The explosion hit our main project located in Gemmayse – the location affected directly by the blast, and caused considerable damages to the infrastructure, the classes and the materials but thankfully no one was seriously harmed.
This project caters two programs; one integration program ( CCA-Fr) for children with Autism who can benefit from an academic and social integration and one program for Early Diagnosis and Intervention (CDIP). The total beneficiaries for those two programs are 24 students in the CCA-FR and 12 students in the CDIP; catered by a total of 32 staff members.
To pursue our mission towards people with Autism, we like all other NGOs rely on funds and contributions locally and internationally and on fundraising events organized by us or our supporters. The unprecedented challenges of this year affected tremendously our agenda and halted our events, and the tragic explosion made things even harder on us as.
We will rise again but we need every help to get back on our feet and pursue our mission. We need help in fixing the windows, frames, ceilings, lights, doors as well as buying new materials that were destroyed during the blast (Chairs, tables, closets, AC, computers, printers, photocopy machines and telephones).
Knowing that our students have Autism and change is very difficult for them, it will be extremely difficult to relocate them, especially that this structure is tailored to their needs, and specific materials is used to tackle their difficulties.
Together we can, together we will
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