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The Hope Project

A non profit organization established by Early Autism Project in 2016 to make world class services assessible to all.

Goals

Increased Awareness

Increased awareness about accurate diagnosis and treatment of autism.

Achieve National Standards

The implementation of policies for national standards in the field of autism.

Inclusivity

All children with autism will have access to research-proven therapy.

Campaigns

World Autism Awareness Day falls on the 2nd of April every year and all of us at EAP makes it a point to celebrate the day as well as the whole of April as World Autism Awareness Month. The objective of campaigns is to raise awareness on autism specifically in early diagnosis and early intervention as well as advocate for acceptance within our community.

Throughout the month of April, EAP holds a social media campaign, #LoveSomeoneWithAutism in hope of raising awareness through the sharing of simple bite-sized resources, involving members of the public in sharing as well as releasing a curated campaign video.

The Hope Project team also shares about autism in various academic institutions and corporate organizations. We have also set up booths at various events including the Urban Mom 2014, in private hospitals such as Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur and Gleneagles in 2016, Riuh in 2018 and Embrace Autism at Intermark Mall in 2019.

Since 2016, we have run the #KindnessStartsWithMe school autism awareness and acceptance campaign with students in various schools. It started with HELP International school with an assembly of 900 children. Up until 2019, the team was able to reach a total of 15,600 students from 28 schools!

The Hope Project also continues to our #lovesomeonewithautism merchandise in order to spread awareness and acceptance for individuals with autism. 100% of profits from the sale of the merchandise goes back to supporting the efforts at The Hope Project.

The Hope Project's impact over the years

In 2016, the EAP Malaysia team launched The Hope Project at our 10th year anniversary gala. We held our first Paint for Autism campaign with 300 people gathering to raise awareness and acceptance for individuals with autism. Throughout the year, we participated in autism awareness campaigns at 5 academic and 6 higher education institutions like HELP International School, Taylor’s College Subang, Fairfields kindergarten, Sri Emas International school, and Kingdomcity Kids, Sunway University, HELP University (3 presentations), SEGI College Subang and International Medical University. On top of that, we also conducted workshops in 4 organisations (Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), EMC Computer systems Malaysia, Human Library @ PricewaterhouseCoopers and Gleneagles Malaysia). Last but not least, we were able to run 2 hospital booths and engage with 300 people to raise awareness in hospitals about autism.

As for 2017, we continued with our second Paint for Autism with over 300 people celebrating and raising awareness together. We were also able to complete 14 school presentations speaking to children in early years, primary and secondary school about kindness. Three training and awareness workshops were also held with Fugee School, SJK (C) Sam Yoke and Paypal Malaysia. On top of that, one of the EAP families organized a Dance for Hope to raise enough funds to sponsor a child with autism for one year of ABA therapy at EAP Malaysia.

In 2018, we filmed a campaign video that has garnered more than 52,000 views on all platforms combined. We also presented and spoke about kindness to 19 schools in hopes to raise awareness and acceptance amongst children. Finally, we were also given the opportunity to hold a booth at RIUH in the city and speak to more than 300 individuals about autism.

We continued all efforts to raise awareness in 2019 through our #lovesomeonewithautism social media campaign. We were able to reach out to 19 schools and over 6,000 students, speaking to them about kindness. On top of that, we had the opportunity to partner with DOME Malaysia in organizing the first ever Embrace Autism featuring various talks and a booth by The Hope Project.

Despite, 2020 being the onset of the pandemic, our social media campaign continued to raise awareness and acceptance for individuals with autism paired with a campaign video featuring one of the kiddos from EAP. We were also able to continue spreading the word through billboard advertisements throughout the month of April and had the opportunity to present via remote means on Comma, Shopee Live, and INTAN.

The social media campaign continued remaining strong in raising awareness with a campaign video featuring a collection of stories by individuals with autism as well as a teen with autism who experienced bullying. In continuation of spreading kindness in schools, we also curated a kindness pack with a video explaining to children about bullying and a document with activities to encourage kindness. Most excitingly, we had the opportunity to collaborate with UNIQLO Malaysia this year to create the UTme x EAP collection that features 16 artwork by individuals with autism.

The World Autism Awareness Month campaign began with an online premiere of our campaign video and #lovesomeonewithautism social media campaign! We shared the upcoming initiatives for WAAM and how everyone can participate in the campaign. We launched a new line of merchandise including sanitisers, face masks, umbrellas and more! Throughout the month, we had the privilege to work with a number of partners including GSC Malaysia, UNIQLO, Dough little Playdough, Afterburn Fitness and Training, Scoby Coffee and Booch and Te’ja Studio! We also had the opportunities to speak to FoodPanda, IPG Media Brands, BASKL, Sunway University, Treetop House and Tenby Schools Setia EcoHill.

In pursuit of increasing understanding and acceptance of autism spectrum disorder, campaigns this year has extended beyond the World Autism Awareness Month! For the launch of World Autism Awareness Month this year, we had a WAAM launch at GSC Cinemas to premiere our 2023 Campaign video featuring a family with a child with autism. We continued our #lovesomeonewithautism social media campaign with additional resources on how we all can be autism-friendly. A new line of merchandise with fresh designs was also launched in collaboration with Building Eliot. On top of it all, we also worked together with GSC and Hospital UMS in organizing our first ever interstate tour to Penang, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu! We also have had the opportunities to collaborate with more than 50 partners, completed more than 30 school awareness campaign presentations, more than 23 training and public talks, 6 media appearances as well as held 11 different booths in 2023!

Services

EAP provides two areas of services on a non-profit basis: Consultation and training for non-profit organizations and training workshops.

It is our long-term goal to increase accessibility of world-class services for individuals with autism. With this goal in mind, we aim to continue partnering with NGOs to equip teachers with practical skills and knowledge to help children with autism and in effect, strengthen the quality of services they provide.

The Hope Project has partnered with IDEAS Autism Centre (IAC) in 2017, PDK Putrajaya Precinct 9 in 2019 and began partnering with National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) in 2021. We hope that the model will be successful and continue to be replicated in other non-profit centers all across Malaysia but most of all, in more government special education centers.

In 2018, The Hope Project also provided a scholarship to a 1 year fully-funded ABA therapy programme at EAP for a boy named Ashton. Since the end of the 1 year, Ashton has been able to transition into mainstream school.

We look forward to more opportunities to aid in strengthening the services for autism in Malaysia and hope to partner with the Ministry of Education as well as the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat.

In 2016, EAP provided 33 complimentary screenings for autism that included children at IDEAS Autism Centre. Two scholarships were also awarded to Aaryn and Abrianna to have access to ABA therapy at EAP Malaysia.

The partnership with IDEAS Autism centre began in 2017 and overseen by one of the supervisors from EAP Malaysia. This partnership aimed to improve the quality of services provided and it has impacted more than 30 children at the centre.

With the funds gathered through the 2017 Dance for Hope organized by one of EAP Malaysia’s families, a scholarship was awarded to one child to attend 15 hours a week of ABA therapy for one year.

Following meetings with the Jabatan Pembangunan Orang Kurang Upaya (JPOKU) in 2018, we began to train and develop teachers in the Program Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti (PPDK) Precinct 9 on the 13th of June 2019. We wrapped up the training in December 2019 and had a wonderful 6 months working with the teachers.

As we began 2020, we were able to observe and work with the teachers from 5 other PDK centres including PDK Presinct 14, PDK Titiwangsa, PDK Sindrom Down, PDK Permata Hati, and PDK Taman Wahyu. In that same year, we also went LIVE on Instagram for the first time ever with 5 live sessions surrounding strategies to support individuals with autism throughout the month of April.

2021 was another year filled with services starting with the launch of a partnership with NASOM to train their teachers and improve the quality of the services provided at their centres. In hope of making bigger impact, we had a meeting with the deputy minister of Ministry of Education in discussion of potential strategies that can be implemented to improve special education in Malaysia. Toward the end of the year, we had the privilege to work with doctors from the emergency department of Hospital Tunku Azizah in creating a quiet room for special needs individuals. The team at THP then curated 50 toy packs for children to help ease their transition into the emergency ward. Finally, in response to a devastating flood that hit Malaysia, we collated a series of toys for children at flood relief centres to bring hope.

As we continued to strive towards giving back, we continued working with NASOM teachers to improve the quality of services provided as well as helping the children further progress. We also continued creating toy packs for the pediatric emergency department at Hospital Tunku Azizah to help ease the children’s transition into the ward. EAP has also started plans to support families in Penang and the first step was a training workshop! The Hope Project will also be extending support to NASOM Butterworth, Penang. Nationally, we have also begun making small steps towards an inclusive community by participating in the Plan Malaysia meeting that aimed towards creating a more inclusive city for individuals with autism.

In continually reaching out through provision of services, we started a child on subsidized half-time therapy for one year. Throughout the year, he has steadily developed in areas of cooperation, flexibility, language and communication, as well as play skills! You can follow Kenzo’s journey at The Hope Project’s Instagram (@eaphopeproject). We also have had the opportunity to join NASOM in a brainstorming meeting to discuss long-term strategies in the betterment of autism services in Malaysia. We continued the training for NASOM teachers in both NASOM Gombak and NASOM Bandar Puteri beginning August 2023! It has been a privilege to be able to work with the number of children and teachers from both centres in order to further maximise the potentials of children at NASOM.

Resources

One of The Hope Project’s goals is to also consistently product clinically accurate, informative and practical resources that includes printed materials, blog posts and videos that can be accessible to all individuals with internet access. These resources are created with the purpose of equipping parents, families, other professionals and members of the public with necessary tools to support individuals with autism.

In April 2020, we launched our first ever resource platform, Autism at Home! The platform features a series of interactive courses with videos and printable resources. The strategies taught are some of the best strategies utilized by Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) professionals all over the world to teach individuals with Autism. Since its launch, the platform continues to grow in content as well as number of audiences.

We have also produced a number of multilingual printed resources that addresses the myth of autism, what autism is, all about ABA and preventing developmental delays.

Our resources began through the creation of 4 multilingual resources on myths and face about autism and what is ABA. There were also a total of 52 blog posts and 22 video resources on various tips and strategies that families can utilize to support their children with autism.

In 2017, we increased the series of print resources by including a resource on What is autism feature 4 pages on what it is, causes, diagnosis and treatments.

The preventing developmental delay resource was created in 2019 in hopes to inform members of the public to take steps in prevention of delays. Additionally, we also had the opportunity to create a resource for Intermark Mall on how to support individuals with autism within the facility.

With thanks to previous donors of The Hope Project, we were able to launch the Autism at Home online resource platform featuring a series of interactive courses with videos. The videos contain strategies that are utilized by professionals all over the world. Additionally, the EAP Malaysia blog also had 16 new blog posts published on more tips for families.

Continuing the Autism at Home platform, 13 learning series with 69 videos were launched on the platform! The growing platform impacted a total of 836 subscribers and gained a total of 175,818 views internationally! On top of that, we published a total of 19 blog posts.

The Autism at Home online resource platform as continued to grow with 5 more learning series! We also celebrate the release of our 100th video this year with a total views of 433,329 as of 10th November 2022 and 1812 subscribers internationally!

With a commitment to support families and other dedicated individuals working with children with autism, we continued to develop more resource videos featuring strategies to support the development of individuals with autism. Up until 2023 we have released a total of 22 series, 149 videos, 343 English and 297 Malay downloadable resources! We also released our first ever paid series this year on Building Language. Following that, we also released Pre-Academics and Building Language part 2 as paid series as well! So far, we have garnered more than 3,219 subscribers internationally on the AAH platform!

In Partnership with

Yayasan Kajian dan Pembangunan Masyarakat (YKPM)

YKPM was incorporated on Sept 22, 1993 and attained the foundation status in 1978. Its main objectives and programs since it was founded centres around empowering and working alongside poor communities both rural and urban in a wide range of socio-economic development programs, public policy advocacy and capacity building.

Currently YKPM’s major project is working alongside the Jakun- Orang Asli communities in Pahang to undertake solidarity economy projects such as an organic farm and eco-tourism at Ulu Gumum, Pekan, Pahang. YKPM is also working with partners in developing a “Diploma in Social Work” course at Methodist College. YKPM is partnering with the Hope Project in working alongside low income families and their members with autism.

Let’s make world-class services for autism accessible to all.

Latest Videos

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2023 World Autism Awareness Month Campaign Video
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2023 World Autism Awareness Month Highlights
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2022 World Autism Awareness Month Campaign Video
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School Anti-Bullying Campaign 2021| Kindness starts with me!
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Hang Out at Dome Cafe with Her World - The Evolution of Autism Awareness in Malaysia
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The Hope Project by Early Autism Project Malaysia