<i>A fair with a difference</i>

Autistic children show some of the Eid cards made by them at a 10-day Eid Fair at Autism Welfare Foundation at Mohammadpur in the city on Sunday.Photo: STAR

They perhaps like colours to express their emotions as they cannot communicate with others like normal kids of the society.
This was evident from beautiful Eid cards and handicrafts designed by
the autistic children for an Eid fair at Mohammadpur in the city.
The fair has been organised by Autism Welfare Foundation (AWF)
at a house on Road No 4.
Once a visitor enters the house, some autistic children come forward and accompany the visitor along the corridor up to the stalls. At times they leave the visitor midway if they like to do so.
In every stall there are autistic children selling colorful Eid cards and handicrafts.
They laugh and play around the stalls but do not talk much.
"I have made this one," an autistic child told this correspondent pointing to a card on display.
“Some of the kids are so skilled in their work that they did not even take suggestion from their teacher and completed the job on their own. On the other hand, some kids have made cards with combined efforts,” said an organiser of the fair.
But what is common in their work is the use of different colours and a touch of isolation that they have been suffering from.
Autism is a complex neuro-behavioural disorder that usually appears in a child by the age of three.
According to American psychiatrists, a child having autistic behaviour features impairments in socialisation and impairments in verbal and non-verbal communications.
The Autism Welfare Foundation has arranged the Eid fair mainly with two objectives, one to get the autistic kids know how to communicate with others and the other to flourish their talent.
"The fair is earning some money for us but the fact is that we just want to have them know that they can also earn. They can sell, they can communicate with others and they the have ability to earn," said Dr Rownak Hafiz, chairperson of AWF.
Colorful Eid cards and handicrafts made by 120 autistic children of the foundation will be on sale until September 24 in two shifts, from 8.00am to 12.00 noon, and from 1.00pm to 5.00pm.
The fair began on September 13.