Exhibition to raise people’s awareness of autism

PANO – A photo exhibition on autistic people taken by photographer Debbie Rasiel will take place from March 26th to April 9th in Hanoi.

The displayed photos vividly reflect the lives of people with autism and their families in Vietnam’s cities of Ha Long, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City, New York, Mexico, Peru, Iceland and Indonesia.

A photo of photographer Debbie Rasiel will be displayed at the exhibition

Over the past years, thanks to the efforts of autistic peoples’ families, experts, and social organizations, autism spectrum disorders have increasingly attracted the concern of the community. However, the fact shows that people with autism and their families find it difficult to integrate into the community and have access to medical care, education and job opportunities as people in general have a poor understanding of autism or they even discriminate against those with the disorder.

With the theme “Picturing Autism Vietnam”, the event is part of efforts to raise the public’s awareness of and sympathy for people with autism in particular and those with mental disabilities in general. Through the displayed photos, the organizers would like to convey a humanitarian message about autism to the whole community through young people, art lovers, and the press and mass media workers.

The “Picturing Autism Vietnam”, has resulted from a long journey of photographer Debbie Rasiel, whose child has autism. A few years ago, with aspirations of raising the public’s awareness of autism, the photographer traveled to many areas across the world to capture and document the lives of those living with autism, parents’ love for their children even when society rejects them, and their on-going lives.

Jointly organized by the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population, Vietnam Autism Network, the Department of Social Support under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs under the auspices of Grand Challenges Canada, the event with three main parts, namely “School”, “Family”, and “Future”, is part of activities in response to the first Vietnam Autism Awareness Day which falls on April 2nd.