A wonderful and productive day for the Network of European Foundations Team
11 volunteers of the Network of European Foundations (NEF) invested a full day in preparing the picto-charts which help autist teenagers communicate and support them in their everyday life challenges. The team support ended up in the equivalent of almost a year of pictos for the PECS notebooks of the kids!
Asbl La Maison
Institute (internat) of psychopedagogy for children with autism aged from 3 to 21 years, located in Linkebeek. In La Maison, children benefit from specific activities related to adapted school learning such as reading and writing but also cooking workshop, maintenance of animals, vegetable garden, psychomotricity, hippotherapy,... and social activities such as Go shopping, go for a drink, go to the pool, go to the cinema, to the restaurant. At all times, children are stimulated to the learning of everyday life by the importance placed on education.
Témoignage de Cathy Siefers, Directrice de l'asbl La Maison
"La journée d’hier avec la société Network of European Foundations fut une totale réussite ! Fameux coup de pouce car ils ont produit l’équivalent de quasi une année de pictos pour les cahiers PECS de nos enfants ! Il se dégageait une très chouette ambiance et tout le monde parlait avec tout le monde, en anglais, en français ! Trop chouette ! Ils semblent avoir énormément apprécié notre projet.L’après-midi, trois d’entre eux ont pu faire une activité avec trois de nos enfants dans l’atelier cuisine avec un éducateur. Les enfants ont directement été chercher le contact et tout s’est super bien déroulé.De notre côté, l’équipe était ravie de pouvoir parler de ce qu’elle fait. Ce fut, pour nous également, un super boost!"
Testimonial from Marie Haas, coordinator for the NEF team
"We really enjoyed the day at La Maison. We met a
very dedicated, friendly and welcoming staff which gave us a great insight on their work, methodology and more generally taught us what Autism means. We arrived at the venue and were welcomed by the team (around 8 people) with coffee, tea and some chocolate. Once everybody arrived, the team of “La Maison” gave us an introduction on Autism, the needs of the teenagers, their work, their methods and the venue. This introduction was very informative as well as touching as we could see how dedicated the staff is to make the teenagers feel comfortable and to give them a voice. It also helped us to understand how essential the picto-charts we were going to prepare are for the work with the teenagers. Then we started with the activities.
The activities consisted of preparing picto-charts which help the teenagers communicate and support them in their everyday life challenges. Firstly, we cut the already printed papers (small icons such as fruits, vegetables etc.), then we laminated the papers, cut them again and added some scratches on the back side of the picto-charts so they can be fixed to the wall and folders the staff and the teenagers are using to communicate.We were treated with freshly made chocolate sweets as well as sandwiches for lunch. After lunch three of our team members were able to make some crepes with one of the staff members of La Maison and three teenagers living in La Maison. The rest of the team was able to take a look at the rest of venue and see the school and facilities.
I would like to thank you for bringing us together and a great thanks to the staff of La Maison. It was a great experience for us and we met a very dedicated and friendly team. It was obvious that they care a lot for the teenagers and that they are doing their best to support them and make their voices heard. Also while showing us around they were respectful of the private places of the teenagers and took care that they would not be interrupted by our presence. They were happy to answer all of our questions and took their time to show us around and to explain everything. We highly appreciate their efforts! We are in fact currently collecting monetary donations within our team and are planning on collecting some non-monetary donations in order to support their work.
Again, great thanks on behalf of the whole Network of European Foundations (NEF) team!"
Marie Haas
