World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) is not a public holiday but it aims to increase people's awareness about people, especially children, with autism.
WAAD is celebrated each year on April 2 and this is the third celebration that organized by Caritas-CCAMH at Deam Land, Phnom Penh with 80 participants.

The day often features educational events for teachers, health care workers and parents, as well as exhibitions showcasing work created by children with autism. CCAMH’s message for WAAD is “Let us play together”. This message means to get the children with autism involved in the society without discrimination.

“So far there are around 110 children with autism are getting free consultation and therapy with CCAMH and most of them are from Phnom Penh and other provinces around the city,” said Kim Navuth, child mental nurse of Caritas-CCAMH.

Moreover, dearozet, program manager of Caritas-CCAMH said after getting the consultation and therapy, the children with autism is getting better since then their parents started to trust the program. She added that the therapies for autism at CCAMH included occupational therapy, speech and language, physiotherapy, and structured teaching therapy.

Sor chanrith a father of a child with autism showed his happiness to join the WAAD. Also he admired Caritas-CAMMH a lot for it good service of therapies for autism. “After get the therapy my child is being better and now follow what said,” he added.

Srin ChhunHak a mother of an autism child and a member of Autism Parents Association of Caritas-CCAMH was very glad to join and shared her ideas to the participants. She asked everyone not to discriminate the children with and suggested the parents take much care of their children, especially with education as they have restricted interest and repetitive behavior and are excluded by the society.

Autism is a developmental disability that remains with a person for his or her whole life. This condition affects the brain's functions. The first signs usually appear before a child is three years old. People with autism often find social interaction difficult, have problems with verbal and non-verbal communication, demonstrate restrictive and repetitive behavior and have a limited set of interests and activities.