Nicole Nation wins autism foundation award

The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation is happy to announce that 18-year-old Nicole Nation is the overall winner of the inaugural Autism and Disabilities Ambassadors competition. The competition is one of the main efforts of the Foundation to help heighten awareness of autism and other disabilities. The competition was staged between January and April, global autism month.

Ms Nation won for her efforts in lifting the awareness of autism through writing letters to the newspaper, published in the Jamaica Observer, calling for more tolerance for the disabled and for writing poems about the plight of the disabled, published in The Sunday Gleaner.

Ms Nation, a student of the Montego Bay Community College, also organised a display at her school library, heightening awareness of various disabilities. The display consisted of well-designed posters about various disabilities accompanied by text, teaching about the disabilities highlighted. The display was chosen to become a part of the school's library resource. She also mounted a fundraiser for a disabilities club on her school campus, raising several thousand dollars, and she submitted an essay about her response and understanding about a disability of her choice. She won prizes valued at approximately $100,000.

Managing director of The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation, Maia Chung, said "the competition was designed to see the competitors showing staying power and a true desire to be among the disabled in a positive way. We hope to show those who chose to enter that the disabled are great human beings who need our help in a special way."

Source: The Maia Chung Autism and Disabilities Foundation