An Ever Present Secret

Call to Action by W. Thomas Saxon

The waves of the sea ebb and flow, coming upon the shore with great beauty and force only to recede quietly and secretively back into its own. Such is the ideology of post-Communist Eastern European ideology. Decades of Communist thought and ethics melded with an enforced Godless mandate has wounded the inner men and women of generations past, present and for the foreseeable future. These scars can be seen clearly in a society’s attitude and approach to disabilities, specifically in children with Autism.

For the past twelve years I have been traveling with teams to Odessa, Ukraine, the last four years of which have been to work in a school dedicated to teaching children with Autism.  It is the only school/facility we have been able to identify in Ukraine that serves the children with these special needs.  Taking Autism Specialists from the US to help instruct Ukrainian teachers who have little to no training and a modicum of success with these precious children of Autism and offering help for parents ill-equipped to relate to their children has been primary in our time in Ukraine.

Fear, shame, exhaustion and hopelessness permeate each consultation with parents.  These parents love their uncommunicative, chaotic and incomprehensible children, though questions regarding the condition plague throughout the world plague them: Why? What did we do to cause this?  Will my child get better?  Children with Autism live secretively and alone.  Eastern Europe keeps disabilities, especially Autism, hidden from view in order to hide the shame, culturally and individually.

On our trip in 2010 we met with one particular couple in Odessa, Ukraine who yearned for so many answers about their nine-year-old daughter.  As they began their story, they immediately dissolved into tears and shame.  They had not allowed their autistic daughter to leave the house since they discovered she was ‘different’.  Personal and societal shame and humiliation hovered in the room like a thick smog, suffocatingly unbearable for all.

The project presented in this packet is a vision to bring Autism in Eastern Europe out into the open and to eventually establish a center for Autism in Ukraine.  Raising awareness of this heartrending problem and offering some practical solutions enables those without hope or future to envision life afresh.

My prospectus is in three phases.  1) Produce a 15 minute, quality video telling the story from the parent’s perspective of children with Autism in Eastern Europe.  2) Use the 15 minute video to raise enough revenue to make a 60-75 minute documentary about Autism in Easter Europe which will be marketed in a broader way. 3) Establish and initially fund an Autism Center in Ukraine where children can be evaluated professionally and education can be offered both for the child and parent.

Plan of Action

Phase I.

May, 3-20, 2011 travel to Eastern Europe to interview and record parents of children with Autism.  This will be done in Odessa, Cherkassy and Kiev, Ukraine as well as Sofia, Bulgaria.  Parents and professionals who work with disabilities have volunteered to be interviewed in each of these cities.

Phase II.

In 2013 return to Eastern Europe to do an in-depth documentary on Autism to include more interviews in the countries mentioned above adding Romania, Poland, Moldova and the Czech Republic.

Phase III.

With this documentary we will bring the Autism in Eastern Europe into the open and raise enough revenue to establish a for-profit Autism Center in Ukraine where children from all over Eastern Europe can come to be evaluated and educated.

Pledge Here

www.notforgottenthemovie.com