BRETT Thwaites Jnr, 23, understands, perhaps better than most, the value of ensuring the right of access to education for every youth — particularly those with special learning needs.

As a child, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — a complex neurological disorder that affects the individual’s social communication, interaction and flexibility of mind — and has had to work hard ever since to claim for himself the benefit of an education.

It forms a part of the reason he has opted to get behind the project Activate Yourself! — an initiative developed with the support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union to encourage the active participation of young people with ASD; empower them as active citizens; make them aware of their role in creating their own future; and promote their equal rights and opportunities.

“Nobody should be deprived of an education, whether because of an ASD or any other disability,” Thwaites told Career & Education at the first of several meetings for the ‘Activate Yourself!’ project, held on February 4 at the YMCA in Kingston.

Despite his ASD diagnosis, Thwaites, a past student of Campion College, managed to acquire seven Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects.

According to Kathy Chang, co-founder of Jamaica Autism Support Association — one of the eight organisations worldwide that have come together to make Activate Yourself! work — said it is the spirit and motivation of autistic youths such as Thwaites that the new project is geared at cultivating in the hundreds of Jamaican children and young adults living with ASD.

The other entities include the Center for Autism Slovenia, Autism South Africa, Public Institution for Social Innovation Centre of Lithuania, Beijing Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism, Action for Autism India, Autism Europe, The National Autistic Society UK, and The European Disability Forum.

“Due to the nature of condition, people with ASD have difficulties in terms of self-advocating their fundamental rights. Therefore, the project has been developed,” Chang, herself the mother of a child with ASD, said in a release to Career & Education, adding her encouragement for all autistic youths to join the project that caters to those aged 13 to 30 years old.

She noted that members of Activate Yourself! will meet on a fortnightly or monthly basis, preferably on a Saturday, with parents of autistic youths also encouraged to join.

Meanwhile, the February 4 meeting was focused on getting the ASD youths in attendance to interact. As such, members of the Rotaract Club of New Kingston were invited to talk and help them create ‘Getting to Know You’ boards.

Over time, they will be provided with other opportunities to meet to:

* discuss the challenges they face in everyday life;

* learn about their rights, campaigning and active citizenship;

* make an awareness video to inform the broader public about their situation; and

* prepare the World Autism Strategy for Youth with ASD [the proposal of the directives for decision-making organisations focusing on the rights of young people with ASD].

Meanwhile, Chang said a youth from the programme is shortly to be selected to attend the International Youth Conference in China later this year. That individual will also attend a youth camp in Slovenia where he/she will have the opportunity to meet, exchange their views on active citizenship and self-advocacy, present their talents and exchange cultures.

“One of the long-term goals of the project is also to build firm ground for the future autism youth forum, which will represent the self-advocacy organisation [for] the rights of young people with ASD worldwide… It’s time for young people with ASD to speak out and build their own future. Activate Yourself!” she said.

Medical studies using parents’ reports of their children suggest that one child with autism is born in every 91 births. As autism is four to five times more common in boys, this means that one in every 58 boys is born with autism.