# OLTREIL2APRILE: Lasi and the Piatti Foundation for Autism

The Renato Piatti Onlus Foundation, which for years has been designing, implementing and managing services for people with intellectual and relational disabilities and for their families, promotes, throughout the month of April, a series of events and initiatives aimed at explaining autism in its complexity, to induce the community to ever greater inclusion.

April 2nd was the day dedicated to autism.

#oltreil2aprile is more than a calendar of events: it is the way of renewing the commitment of Renato Piatti onlus towards the more than 250 girls and boys with autism that the Foundation takes care of every day.

Giulia: an exceptional testimonial

Giulia is now 9 years old and since she was 3, she has been attending the "Mafalda Luce" Center for Autism in Milan, managed by the Foundation since 2013. She wrote the decalogue "The 10 things Giulia would like to tell you" with the help of her mother, to explain what an autistic child like her needs and wants.

Among the many initiatives scheduled in April, the "Quiet Hour" project by Carrefour Italia will also be launched. It provides for the organization, in 16 hypermarkets throughout the country, of an autism-friendly time slot in which the lights will be dimmed, background music removed, loud announcements and any other potentially "disturbing" activity suspended.

Explains Cesarina del Vecchio, President of the Renato Piatti onlus Foundation: “the first form of awareness is to try to step into the shoes of others. It seems easy but it is not at all ... A family with a child with autism is a bit like a group of astronauts who suddenly find themselves floating in the sky, without gravity, with limited control of their movements. Our task, as the Piatti Foundation and Anffas Varese, is to be, as far as possible, the staff of the control room, there to help the family living with the condition of autism to find an answer to their needs and a direction to give to their own life. The mural that is inaugurated on April 2nd, at our La Nuova Brunella Center, takes its cue from this metaphor. "

LASI contributes to spreading a message of knowledge about the topic of autism, in the hope and belief that this can facilitate easier integration and inclusion of everyone in our daily life.