Health Min­is­ter Dr Lakram Bo­doe is prais­ing the Strate­gic Learn­ing and Spe­cial Ed­u­ca­tion In­sti­tute for its ef­forts in as­sist­ing chil­dren with autism. He is invit­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion to col­lab­o­rate with the Min­istry of Health in se­cur­ing spaces for 200 chil­dren cur­rent­ly on the in­sti­tute’s wait­ing list.

Bo­doe made the an­nounce­ment while ad­dress­ing a fundrais­er host­ed by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Med­ical As­so­ci­a­tion (T&TMA) on Fri­day at the Den­nis P Ramd­han Com­plex in Cou­va.

High­light­ing the chal­lenges faced by chil­dren on the autism spec­trum, Bo­doe stat­ed:

“Chil­dren on the autism spec­trum of­ten face height­ened or di­min­ished sen­so­ry re­spons­es that make every­day en­vi­ron­ments chal­leng­ing. How­ev­er, through sen­so­ry play, they can be­gin to un­der­stand, reg­u­late and en­joy the world around them.”

Reaf­firm­ing the min­istry’s com­mit­ment to chil­dren with spe­cial needs, Bo­doe said:

“This is echoed in our leg­isla­tive frame­work through the Chil­dren’s Life Fund Act, which en­sures that chil­dren fac­ing life-lim­it­ing ill­ness­es have ac­cess to life-sav­ing care, re­gard­less of eco­nom­ic sta­tus. Since its in­cep­tion, the fund has been a bea­con of hope for hun­dreds of fam­i­lies, and its work con­tin­ues to be a source of na­tion­al pride.”

He added that part­ner­ships with oth­er gov­ern­ment agen­cies, such as the Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, are be­ing con­sid­ered to en­hance the sup­port ser­vices avail­able to chil­dren with spe­cial needs and their care­givers.

“Tonight’s ini­tia­tive is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship and com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment. Whether you are a donor, a spon­sor, a par­ent or a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al, your pres­ence here sends a pow­er­ful mes­sage that we are will­ing to in­vest in the lives and fu­tures of our chil­dren,” he said.

Al­so speak­ing at the event, Dr Na­tal­ie Chai­tan-Ma­haraj, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, re­it­er­at­ed her min­istry’s com­mit­ment to peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties.

“We recog­nise their in­her­ent worth, their im­mense po­ten­tial, and their right to a life filled with dig­ni­ty, op­por­tu­ni­ty, and joy. This com­mit­ment is not mere­ly a pol­i­cy state­ment; it is a moral im­per­a­tive,” she stat­ed.

Funds raised from the event will con­tribute to the de­vel­op­ment of a sen­so­ry-friend­ly play­ground at the Strate­gic Learn­ing and Spe­cial Ed­u­ca­tion In­sti­tute.