Transform the Lives of Autistic Kids in Venezuela

Dear supporters

Christi is one of the children you have given your support. She is like a whirlwind of activity, does not like to wear shoes, and much less to have her hair cut, and she's such a beautiful kid. Her consultation took quite some time, but I am sure her family left our facilities with great hopes for her daughter. 

Christi es una de las personas que ustedes han apoyado. Ella es como un torbellino de actividad, no le gustan los zapatos, y mucho menos que le corten el cabello, y es una niña tan linda. Su consulta fue algo larga, pero estoy segura que su familia salió de SOVENIA con buenas expectativas para su hija.

Since our last report Sovenia participated in the LittleXLittle campaign, and although it was not a huge success, it has been of great help for eight children, who, like Christy, could not have access to an evaluation and get the needed report for further attention or for their schools. This was a real blessing to them, thanks to all of you that saw this great need.

Desde nuestro ultimo reporte SOVENIA participó en la campaña LittleXLittle, que aunque no alcanzamos nuestro objetivo, si fue de gran ayuda para ocho niños que como Christi, no podian tener una consulta ni el informe que necesitan tanto para asuntos de salud como para ingresar a un centro educativo. Gracias a ustedes por haber visto esta importante necesidad.

Sovenia has been pretty active during these past months of April and May. First in the afternoon of April 2nd, for Autism Awareness Day, and with the help of an important pharmacy, at a local public square of Caracas, we held a free screening of autism for 57 families, and we carried it out with the help of volunteer doctors, psychologists, gastroenterologists and educators (9 in total). We also had fun activities for the children, and even had a big air balloon at the end. Some of the children and their parents went up, up, and a little away on the balloon. At the end of April ,Sovenia was invited to an International congress in the city of Lechería,Anzoategui state, where we spoke about the contributions of SOVENIA after 45 years of its foundation, as well as of the scientific and medical aspects that bring well-being to our children, adolescents and adults in the Autism Spectrum. Another one of our doctors participated as speaker at a virtual conference called "Voices for Autism" of an association in Uruguay.. 

Hemos tenido muchas actividades, como el 2 de Abril con la jornada de despistaje a 57 personas, y la elevación del globo aerostático al que subieron algunos de los chicos y sus padres. Fuimos invitados al Congreso Internacional en Lechería donde hablamos de nuestro recorrido en estos 45 años de existencia y sobre el aspectos biomedicos del tratamiento del autismo para el bienestar de nuestros pacientes, y con una de nuestras doctoras participamos en el Congreso virtual  "Voces para el Autismo" desde Uruguay.

Last but not least, in May, near mother's day, we brought information to the community of Acarigua, at Portuguesa State, at a conference entitled "Living with Autism" and a Q&A session with the mothers of a local association. We closed May with a fun fundraiser where we paint our own "meninas" with the participation of artists and regular folks that had a great time helping us raise money to get a new computer for the center.This month we will be doing some repairs at our facility, and getting new materials and toys. We inclute pictures of some of the activities and of Christi. 

Por ultimo, antes del dia de la madre en Mayo fuimos invitados a Acarigua para el evento "Vivir con Autismo" donde compartimos con madres de una asociacion local, y cerramos el mes con una actividad de recaudacion de fondos que llamamos "Pinta tu Menina" junto a reconocidos artistas venezolanos, para adquirir una computadora para nuestro centro. Este mes vamos a hacer reparaciones en la casa donde trabajamos y adquirir materiales didácticos.  Incluimos algunas fotos de las actividades y de la bella Christi. 

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Dear Donors,

We are very happy to let you know that with your generous support and the funds that we have received so far, at Sovenia and its Centro de Diagnóstico y Tratamiento para Autismo, we have begun to give diagnostic consultations to children who had not had access to one, and therefore start their treatments. Three children and two adolescents from our waiting list have received this benefit, thus opening to them a window of inclusion toward their well-being. We still have people waiting and now we also have one more psychologist on our staff. We are very happy to be able to assist the ones that we have already served, and those that we will be adding to these services.

The funds received are being used solely for initial consultations. We do still need your support to help more families since as many of you already know, autism is now more frequent than ever (1 in 36 in the US), and in our country, given the socio-economic conditions, we hear about more cases every day from the entire country, although we do not have data on how many people with autism are in Venezuela. We aim to serve 100 children by 2025, and regularly we see from 5 to 8 patients per week at our small facilities. We are also organizing a training course for teachers in Bolivar State, to ensure as well that the children there have good psychoeducational guidance through this important training to their specialists.

The picture below is from one of those consultations that we gave in January. We count on you to continue changing lives and giving hope to many families like Tiago’s family. 

Links:

• http://sovenia.org/
• https://www.instagram.com/sovenia_cdta/
• https://www.facebook.com/sovenia.cdta