Silent sufferers

Autism TKP

My story ‘Silent sufferers’ published in The Kathmandu Post on Saturday, March 31, 2012. Here is a link to the pdf version: http://epaper.ekantipur.com/ktpost/showtext.aspx?boxid=14312234&parentid=16742&issuedate=3132012 and for web version: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/03/31/saturday-features/silent-sufferers/351523.html

Four-year-old Binu Dangol enters the room with her mother and father, dressed daintily in a blue t-shirt and trousers, her hair done neatly, but I can see that she’s scared. She leans away at the sight of me and my camera, ready to take flight, and I have very little idea of how to comfort her.

It was an International Reportage Workshop with photojournalist Philip Blenkinsop, jointly organised by photo.circle, Pathshala South Asian Media Academy and Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, that had triggered a desire within me to shed light upon stories that are yet untold. Among many such issues that exist within our country, it was the silent sufferers of autism—a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder—that particularly caught my attention. And Binu is one of them.
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