• Among projects highlighted at Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2023 by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
• Act Early for Autism initiated to celebrate CDB’s 20th anniversary in 2015 
• Project is in collaboration with Sri Lanka Association for Child Development 

In an absolute win for responding to the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which affects one in 93 children between the ages of 18 to 24 months in Sri Lanka, ‘Act Early for Autism’, which is a Citizens Development Business Finance PLC (CDB) project, gained a prestigious accolade as Best Project Sustainability Award 2023.

The award was presented at Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2023, organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, which evaluates corporates on their contribution to People. Planet. Profit.

Having analysed a 2009 study, which revealed alarming statistics on the ASD in Sri Lanka, CDB initiated Act Early for Autism in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Association for Child Development (SLACD) in 2015, which coincided with the company’s 20th anniversary.  For over nine years since then, the project has worked on creating widespread awareness about the ASD and ensuring social acceptance for children with this disorder.

  
Believing strongly that early detection and intervention are vital to ensure inclusivity in children with the ASD, the project has been instrumental in integrating children with the ASD into the everyday lives of families and communities, minimising long-term impacts in their growing up and adult years. 

The award recognises the significant inroads implemented by CDB to educate and inform the public about the ASD, fostering a culture of understanding and acceptance in a country where children with mental and physical disabilities are surrounded by silence and non-acceptance and are rarely able to get the much-needed support needed to integrate into society.  

From mass media campaigns to establishing intervention centres via the establishment of a trust fund, Act Early for Autism has reached communities around the island. 

Some of the most significant interventions have been the establishment of the outdoor therapeutic play area at the Ampara District Hospital, ‘Pragathi’ – a state-of-the-art intervention centre at the Teaching Hospital in Anuradhapura and the ‘Pragathi’ Southern Provincial Autism and Neurodevelopment Interventional Centre at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. 

In addition, outreach programmes were conducted in Pimbura, Ratnapura, Colombo, Anuradhapura, Jaffna and Karapitiya as the first point of contact with doctors, medical officers, public health midwives, other healthcare professionals, preschool teachers and the public.  To augment these efforts and take the message further, a comprehensive series of bilingual discussions with doctors was conducted on television and radio channels. 
Act Early for Autism is an on-going project and continues to reach out and engage communities across the country through outreach programmes, which it hopes to conduct in all 25 districts. The company also remains committed to build awareness about the ASD, while introducing globally recognised interventions, via the Intervention Centres, CDB aims to establish in all nine provinces. 

Based within a two-pronged approach of Net Zero and Socially Conscious, which are the twin pillars in CDB’s sustainability agenda, Act Early for Autism, which is under the Socially Conscious pillar, is specifically aligned with the UNSDG3 of ‘Good Health and Well-being’.