An open letter from Casey McFeely of the Global Autism Project:

My volunteer work began in Ghana last summer. Through the non-profit Global Autism Project, I became introduced to the Autism Awareness, Care and Training Centre [AACT] in Accra. What started as a parent driven daycare for children with autism 10 years ago, now has been transformed into a school for the children, provides support for families, and raises awareness throughout the community. Now, due to the overwhelming generosity of STAR Autism Support and one of the program's authors, Joel Arick, I will be able to provide trainings to the caregivers , administrative staff, and parents of this center.

On top of volunteering at AACT, I also am involved with an “all-inclusive” school, meaning open to any student with or without disabilities, called Multikids. In this school, thanks to another charitable donation of the FACTER Program, I am leading a class called Towards Independence. Due to the nature of this type of school, there are quite a few teen age students with varying degrees of autism. While generally higher functioning, life skills seem to always require extra attention. Through this class, I am also helping to train two Ghanaian teachers in the program. This way it becomes sustainable within the school and hopefully reaches more teenagers with autism in Ghana.

To find out more information, please check our websites:

www.globalautismproject.org

www.aact.gh.com

www.coledic.com (soon to be multikids)

or direct questions can be emailed to casey@globalautismproject.or

Thank you again to STAR Autism Support and to all of the readers for taking the time to hear my story!

Casey McFeely

Global Autism Project Country Director - Ghana