AMA Associao de Amigos do Autista
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Mission Statement
AMA's Mission is to provide people with autism with a dignified life: work, health, leisure and integration into society. Offer the family of a person with autism tools for coexistence at home and in society. Promote and encourage research into autism, disseminating accumulated knowledge.
About This Cause
AMA was the country's first autism association and was founded on August 8, 1983 by a group of parents. These parents faced many difficulties because at that time, autism was practically unknown to society, governamental authorities and even to doctors. AMA survived and grew thanks to the commitment of its parents and important support from partners and collaborators. Throughout its history, it has relied on support such as a technical and financial partnership with the Swedish Government, which maintained it and boosted its growth for 10 years, from 2000 to 2009. This partnership allowed AMA to treat and educate a significant number of people with autism, free of charge when it did not yet have any financial agreement with the Government of the State of São Paulo, and allowed to visit autism institutions in Sweden and bring renowned swedish researchers in the field of autism to Brazil. At the moment AMA offers, completely free of charge, specialized education to almost 500 children, adolescents and adults, without distinction of race, social or economic class or political or religious orientation. AMA develops, through study and research, an Educational and Therapeutic System that aims to develop its students and patients to enable them to live a dignified life and be included in society. AMA supports the the poorest families of its students and patients through donations of food and cleaning products collected through entities such as the Red Cross and general society. AMA is proud to promote relevant scientific events, such as the International Autism Congress, held in November 2023, in partnership with important clinics, associations and universities. 1983 August 8 – Foundation of the AMA Association of Friends of the Autistic 1984 May – Starts special education for 13 children with autism. November – “1st Meeting of Friends of Autistic People” 1988 June 7th to 23rd - Visit to 7 institutions in Europe and several institutions in the United States to learn about what was being done about autism in other countries; 1989 September 3 - Holding of the first Charitable Art Auction at the the famous nightclub named Gallery to acquire a site in Parelheiros. September 18th - Start of service at a site in a neighborhood known as Parelheiros. 1991 July 14th to 17th - holding of the “IV World Congress of Autistic Children”, “II International Symposium of Institutions for the Mentally Handicapped” and “II National Congress of Autism”, at the Anhembi Palace, in São Paulo/SP, with approximately 2,000 participants. Professionals from various countries and all over Brazil came to make an unprecedented contribution to the study of autism. December - Dr. Thomas E. Mates, Clinical Director of the TEACCH Center, in Wilmington/USA, was at our institution, advising us on setting up an educational program for autistic people. 1993 August - training at NAAMA carried out for a week by Dr. Thomas E. Mates and two teachers from the Orange Grove Center, USA, and assisted by the NAAMA team and guests from institutions in Ceará, Sergipe, Brasília, and some other institutions in the city from Sao Paulo. 1994 June/July - course “Insertion of Autistic/Mentally Disabled Persons into society - Psycho-pedagogical resources used in practice, in Sweden”, in the auditorium of Faculdades São Marcos, from 29/06 to 01/07, with special guest Inger Nilsson, psychologist, pedagogue and sociologist, professor of psychology teaching about autism at the College of Education in Stockholm, Sweden. June - the residence for autistic children, teenagers and adults comes into operation, on the AMA site in Parelheiros. 1995 November - holding of the “IV Regional Autism Day - Southeast Region” and “II Meeting of Friends of Autistic People”, from 23 to 25 November, at the Centro Cultural das Faculdades Integradas São Camilo. 1996 May 3, 4 and 5 - AMA participation in the “V Autism-Europe Congress” in Barcelona. October 24, 25, 26 and 27 - holding of the “I Jornada Paulista de Distúrbios do Desenvolvimento” and “III Meeting of Friends of Autistic People”. 1997 AMA was awarded the 1997 WELL EFFICIENT AWARD. 5th and 6th June - holding of the “VII Regional Autism Day - Southeast Region” - “V Meeting of Friends of Autistic People”, with the presence of Dr. Francesca Happé, from the London Institute of Psychiatry. 7 October - trip to autism treatment institutions in Sweden, invited by Mrs. Inger Nilsson December 8 - We received the 1998 HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD, conferred by the Presidency of the Republic and UNESCO, . at the Palácio do Planalto in Brasília at the hands of the President of the Republic. 1999 September 8th, 9th and 10th – VI Meeting of Friends of Autistic People. 2000 November 22nd and 23rd – holding the VII Meeting of Friends of Autistic People, 2001 Beginning of the Partnership with Sweden. 19, 20, 21 and 22 November – VIII Meeting of Friends of Autistic People in the UNIP Auditorium with the presence of Dr. Christopher Gillberg, Ulrika Aspeflo, Inger Nilsson and young people with Asperger syndrome high school students at Danderyds Gymnasyum and their teachers all from Sweden 2002 July 1, 2 and 3 – IX Meeting of Friends of Autistic People August – sending three representatives to the course on the TEACCH method, in Sunne, Sweden, by the team from the TEACCH Center in North Carolina, USA. September – visit by AMA representatives to Queen Sílvia, of Sweden. 2003 July 1st to 4th – Promotion and organization of the VI Brazilian Congress on Autism and the X Meeting of Friends of Autistic People. 2004 January 26th to 28th – Visit by Swedish consultant Gunilla Hejbel in special education, as part of the Brazil – Sweden agreement. March 13th and 14th – Organization of a series of conferences with Dr. Christopher Gillberg and Dr. Peder Rasmussen in the Auditorium of Hospital Alvorada de Moema. This cycle had two main parts, one aimed at parents and the other at doctors. October 6th to 9th – Visit to AMA by Swedish consultant Inger Nilsson as part of the Brazil – Sweden agreement. October 21st – Signing of the Agreement with the State Department of Health that allowed AMA, from January 2006, to offer specialized and completely free care. 2005 March 1st to 11th – – Visit by Swedish consultant Gunilla Hejbel in special education, as part of the Brazil – Sweden agreement. May 3 – The AMA is awarded the Very Efficient Award. July 6th to 8th – XII Meeting of Friends for Autism. October – Visit to the AMA by Eva Nordin-Olson, president of the Swedish Autism Association, Lena Anderson, director of the Swedish Autism Association and Carina Petersson financial manager of the same institution. November 28th – AMA receives the Proin 2005 Project Award from the Prof. Educational Institution. Pasquale Cascino. 2006 March - 16 - Visit by Carin Zetterlund Brune representing SHIA, the Swedish agency that has collaborated with AMA since 2000. December 27th to 4th – Trip to Sweden, as part of the exchange for Ana Maria, Luciane and Ana Cristina. 2007 March 1st to 24th – Holding of the 1st International Congress of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service of the Institute of Psychiatry of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of USP and the XIII Meeting of Friends for Autism. Our guests came from the United States, Paula Braga Kenyon (Polé), Shawn Emerson Kenyon and Maria América de Andrade (Meca), William Holcomb, and Elizabeth Bellone and from Sweden we had the presence of Inger Nilson and Anita Hildén. June – Donation of 20,000 Swedish crowns to the AMA by Queen Silvia of Sweden. June 24th to July 4th – visit and supervision by the Brazilian social worker who lives and works with autism in Stockholm Claudia Chaves Martins, the Brazilian speech therapist who lives and works with autism in Stockholm Rose Kilander and the Swedish pedagogue who works with autism Gunilla Heijbel . June 29th and 30th – course taught by Vera Juhlin, a Brazilian pedagogue who lives and works with autism in Stockholm, and Swedish pedagogue Yvonne Ebvorne. 2008 May 9th and 10th – XIV Meeting of Friends for Autism – Accessibility and Autism in AMA auditorium July 17th to 25th – Visit by Claudia Martins, Rosi Kilander and Gunilla Heijbel to AMA. 2009 May 27th – Arrival of Rosi Kilander, a Brazilian speech therapist working with autism in Sweden. Rosi supervised the AMA until June 4th. June 21st to 30th – Consultancy and Supervision by Swedish pedagogue Gunilla Heijbel and social worker Claudia Martins. Both work with patients with autism and their families in Sweden... June 23 – Gunilla Heijbel gave the lecture “Asperger Syndrome – the individual, the family and AMA – Improving working memory – a method developed in Sweden”. October 11th – XV Meeting of Friends for Autism in the Cruz Azul Hospital Auditorium. 2010 July 15th and 16th – XVI Meeting of Friends for Autism in the Cruz Azul Hospital Auditorium. 2011 November 21st, 22nd and 23rd - Event of the National Campaign for Assistance and the Rights of People with Autism, XVII Meeting of Friends for Autism and II AMA Conference on Analysis of Atypical Behavior and Development, in the Cruz Azul Hospital Auditorium. 2012 April 6th and 7th - Event of the National Campaign for Assistance and the Rights of People with Autism and the XVIII Meeting of Friends for Autism in the Cruz Azul Hospital Auditorium. 2016 May 3rd and 4th – XIX Meeting of Friends for Autism in the Cambuci Baptist Church