Insipred by son's 'talent', parents set up platform for autistic children

VISAKHAPATNAM: When

Himal

, son of

Harish Bikmal

was diagnosed with severe non-verbal autism at the age of two, little did Harish know that his son would be an inspiration to set up a social enterprise which would be impacting the lives of many

children

with autism.


Harish, who is a native of Hyderabad, now settled in

Virginia

, is the co-founder and chief empowerment officer of Zenaviv - which provides a platform for the artistic talent of people impacted by autism.

As a parent of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Harish along with his wife Sandhya, struggled to do things possible to help him. After being diagnosed by ASD, Himal was constantly sick due to compromised immune system and a terrible gut. Since there was hardly any progress, the parents were worried about his future, and the distress mounted every day.

Himal, who had run away from home twice, and being non-verbal, was unable to communicate except by crying and shouting for hours together to vent out his frustrations. Terrified by these challenges, Himal’s parents, like the parents of other children with special needs, felt that hope was a rare commodity.

But one day, Himal snatched a paintbrush from his mother while she was working on her canvas. At this point of time, Himal was around ten years old, unable to hold a fork. Surprisingly, he started painting with the colours and stood near the canvas for a minute. This changed the perception of the parents and this artistic expression was a spark of hope. Since that day, the parents decided to nurture the hidden talent of their son and found an art teacher to pursue his talent.

Speaking to TOI, Harish Bikmal, 53 years, said, “A few years back there was no insurance coverage for children with autism. Since the medical bills were piling up, we decided to organise a fund-raising event showcasing Himal’s paintings. His paintings were converted into 1,500 greeting cards and bravo!, they were sold in two hours. The other 130 paintings were sold in a span of six hours. Although Himal could not understand what was going on, his face was lit-up when people started complimenting him. This was another ray of hope and one by one, it led to establishing Zenaviv and forge ahead.”

“Slowly, the love for painting deepened in Himal and he felt empowered. He would smile when he painted and insisted that he clicked a picture with his painting. Keeping this in view, a thought struck us that if painting can transform a life of an autistic child, we can give a ray of hope to parents of children with autism by helping them find their passion and purpose. Our goal is to improve the self-esteem of children with special needs by bringing their talent to the world and to change the perception of parents of children with special needs,” added Harish.

Himal, who is now 18, is also undergoing special needs training in table tennis, taekwondo and fitness.

Although it requires patience to try out different things in recognising a special child’s potential, Harish asserts that there is always a possibility for things to get better. Not every child has an interest towards painting, but they could be interested in playing musical instruments or could be good at swimming. The visual memory of children are very strong and it is essential to focus intensively on the child’s strength.