Pushing for public awareness

Sha regularly arranges psychological counseling for her teachers so that the team can stay longer in special education which is better for the children.

Ma Shiyan, 28, director of Look at Me, remembers the time she joined Sha's team 4 years ago and was at a loss when a boy got emotional. Sha came and easily smoothed the boy's emotions.

Ma has learned a lot from Sha and is touched by her positive energy whether dealing with children or the difficulties when running the training center.

"Sha knows the condition of each child at our center, and when we discuss one child's case, she can often associate it with another kid's case," Ma says.

Besides teaching and training, Sha also tries to find ways to raise funds for the families that have children with autism and need financial help.

"As a member of Kunming Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Sha always submits proposals about children with disabilities in the city," Ma says.

Sha has called on college students in Yunnan to join volunteer efforts to help people with disabilities. Since 2014, she has visited universities to introduce autism-related awareness to the students and arrange events for them to join.

"Instead of lying in their dorms on a weekend afternoon, I think they can take part in a public service activity to know more about children with autism. Even though they might not work in special education in the future, when they get into society, at least they can provide more understanding when meeting autistic children," she says.

Sha says in recent years special education in Yunnan has noticeably progressed, with teaching teams growing and the supporting hardware being updated, especially for some remote ethnic areas.

She has set her plans for the development of her training center and one step is to strengthen cooperation with organizations outside Yunnan.

Sha has launched a team project to draw more attention to autism in the hopes that the government will give more funding and supporting policies to institutions that provide rehabilitation for children with autism.

"During the past decades, besides more government support, parents have also become more aware of autism and they are looking for a scientific approach to the children's education," Sha says.

With 30 staff members, the training center now teaches around 70 children from ages 2 to 16 on three separate campuses in Kunming. Some of the students have left after training for regular kindergartens or primary schools, or special education schools.

When naming the training center Look at Me 12 years ago, Sha says she hopes society would pay more attention to children on the autism spectrum. Now, she has furthered the goal to help the children take care of themselves, as well as have jobs to sustain. Some of the older children from the center have found jobs in a local coffee company or at a bar. In the future, Sha aims to find more jobs for such children.

Working in special education means dealing with different challenges, and this makes Sha feel she is alive. "You are thinking of how to solve different problems each day," she says.

Sha says the biggest change for her since starting the work is getting a different mentality. "Before I used to think that these children were just poor, but now I feel full of positive energy seeing their families. Their spirit of not giving up always encourages me."