Update on "A Mother's Wish" Holiday Programme for End-Users with Autism

Dear everyone,

1. It is with tremendous pride and gratitude that I announce the completion of our inaugural “A Mother’s Wish” (AMW) Holiday Programme, Dec 16^th–Dec 20^th, 2013 in our January 2014 update. During these five days, our six end-users with moderate to severe autism, aged 6 to 19, engaged in reading and writing, created unique Christmas cards, exerted themselves at the gym, created customised pizzas, and made music! Wearing signs that offered a concise description of AMW, we rode on buses & MRTs; members of the public read our signs and acknowledged their support with smiles and patience. 

Kudos to all the participants — end-users, parents, caregiver and professional service, assistants, and volunteers — Hwa Chong’s Larkspurs! It was a privilege to witness the sense of community that lies at the heart of the AMW vision. Everyone pulled together, looked out for the end-users, stepped in readily to help one another, and did their best to engage the end-users. Caregiving in a group makes the journey of raising our special children far less lonely! 

After the holiday programme, I can affirm what makes AMW so unique: We are NOT a service provider, NOT a school, and NOT an institution. We are a COMMUNITY — a large family sharing in the responsibility of raising our special children and teens!

[Check out a concise summary of each day of our holiday programme and our gallery of photos.]

2. Fifty percent of the cost of the AMW holiday programme that totalled about $2,400 was covered by the AMW fund, with the remaining sum paid by the families of the six end-users ($200/per end-user for 5 days, $40/day for the 3.5 hour programme).

The AMW fund comprises: 

1) Sebastien’s donations of 30% of sales of his paintings (they range in price from $100 to $800); 

2) My donations of 70% sales of my picture book, All Because of the Hummingbird or the Horse;  and 

3) General donations, particularly the contribution from MediaCorps Corporation (Channel 8) related to our appearance in Episode 8 of “Joy Truck”. 

Thanks to the sales of a few of Sebastien’s paintings and our first sale of corporate gifts featuring reprints of Sebastien’s paintings in the last two months, the fund stands at over $15,000, after covering the costs of the holiday programme. For those of you who have already seen Sebastien’s previous portfolios, please check out Sebastien’s latest paintings in the "Latest" portfolio. Please respond to this email for purchases or more information.

We look forward to the coming year as we head towards becoming a non-profit organisation and organise additional holiday programmes for our end-users with moderate to severe autism and public awareness activities.  

Happy New Year... 

With gratitude,

Kah Ying