NVA Autism Week

Sounding of the Gong for Autism Week of NVA

This year the NVA organizes the Autism Week for the 7th time, from 2 to 9 April, to create awareness about autism. Diederik Weve from Shell sounds the gong.

Diederik Weve is a safety engineer at Shell and with his project “Coming out for Autistics” he laid the very foundations for the Autism Embassy. The embassy is a fast growing network of employees with autism who are successful at making autism visible in their own organizations as a Diversity & Inclusion proposition.

This year the Autism Week focuses on physical activity and sports. More and more research shows that sport contributes to stay healthy - physically as well as mentally. Our brain actually works better when we sport regularly. Data from the Dutch Autism Registry (NAR) show that people with autism are particularly vulnerable to stress and negative feelings and social isolation is a problem among this group. Practicing sports can help to reduce these problems and increase self-confidence. Autism-friendly sports clubs and sports coaches help to overcome barriers to actually join a sports club.

Members of the Dutch Autism Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Autisme, NVA) are people with autism and their families. From their perspective the NVA tries to establish an autism-friendly society; a society in which people with autism are optimally integrated, accepted and self-reliant.

For more information: www.autisme.nl

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