Not everyone is familiar with this disorder: 10 years ago there were only two stories in a Google search, today there are countless stigmas

Beata Veselienė, head of the association “Vilnius Lietaus Vaikii”, says that the organization works every day throughout the year, trying to increase awareness and public knowledge about autism. And this month, all indifferent citizens of the country are actively invited to participate in the activities and show that the latter care about this topic.

“This month we are joining the campaign of the Autism Europe association, of which we are a member, which is called ‘Invisible’, and we invite all members of the public to draw, somehow represent the symbol of infinity, which is our symbol, and send us that picture and distribute it yourself on social networks, thus contributing even more to understanding,” she says.

When asked why autistic people associate themselves with the symbol of infinity, she explains that this symbol was not chosen by chance and replaced the puzzle symbol that is still used in some places.

“The infinity sign is because the sign itself is combined – nothing is missing, and the colors are such that it is the whole spectrum. Until that time, one of the most famous signs was a puzzle piece. It appeared around 1963, but over time it acquired a lot of negative connotations, as if something was lacking, so our community is abandoning this symbol and moving to the infinity sign, but the puzzle is still quite popular,” explains the head of the association’s branch operating in Vilnius.

In addition to the initiative to share infinity signs, an exhibition and a conference are also being opened in the Seimas on April 2nd.

“It will talk about successful cases of autistic children at school, because we really want to show that with the right help, everything is possible. On April 18th, a film support evening will be held at the “Multikino” cinema located in the “Ozas” shopping center, where we will show the film “Rain Man”, from which the name of the association came. I invite everyone to a movie night with young Tom Cruise”, smiles B. Veselienė.

“I was really stuck when our chairman, who is one of the founders of the association and we say that she is our glue, said that when she entered the word autism in Google 10 years ago, there were exactly 2 stories in Lithuanian and no information. At that time, parents who left the Child Development Center were wished good luck and instructed to come back in a year. Today the situation is really different. Is everything perfect and very good? Certainly not yet – there are always places to work, but the situation has changed very dramatically,” she says.

According to the interlocutor, although the association has been active in the country for 11 years, society is still full of various stigmas and obstacles that prevent the inclusion of autistic persons in all areas.

“Ten years ago, for example, one of the first things our association did was the situation was such that at that time only children could have a diagnosis of autism. It means you turn 18 and then you either have schizophrenia or mental retardation or nothing. Now it seems to me that this is absurd and how could it be so? But it was. There is still a lot of such “nonsense”, but we are really moving forward and that institutional approach, legal acts are still very important – there is still a lot to be done.

It seems to me that everyone already knows everything, but when you take a step out of your social bubble, you realize that this is far from the case. As there is more and more talk about inclusion, all I can say is that […] when our people come out of the community and into society, they still see a lot of stigma. I think that it is necessary to increase understanding, knowledge, simply to meet the members of our community more and to talk more and more about it”, says B. Veselienė.