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The Veolia Foundation has made a grant to the French NGO, Chrysalide, to purchase IT and audio-visual equipment to assist in the integration of 5 autistic children aged 3 to 12 into a school in Biarritz.

Chrysalide was established more than two decades ago to assist parents of autistic childrenSince then it has successfully established several specialised school integration classes, and also assistedand supports parents of autistic children. For many years, health professionals have known that the best way to help autistic children is to get them to join the company of sound children. In regards to this, the association Chrysalide has mobilized to open an “AVA” class (Accompagner vers l’autonomie – accompaniment to self-sufficiency) in the school that is quite “ordinary”.

The equipment, purchased with the help of Veolia Foundation’s grant, is used by specialist educators to stimulate the children and thus help them to develop their ability to communicate and interact with other children. This project has generated six new jobs and has been granted “experimental class” status by the French National Education Ministry. Supported by Chrysalide, the AVA class of the Paul Bert school wants to score higher: thanks to the alternation between individual work time with specialized educators and progressive integration in a “normal” class, the aim is for all the children concerned to join normal classes alongside sound classmates, within two to three years.