(Nigeria) "World's Largest Autism Screening Event"-Apr 2; families bring children for free screening

Mar 26, 2026, Independent: Nigeria To Leads World’s Largest Autism Screening Event April 2 – Uyero – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho, The Global Spokesperson of Sector-Wide-Approach (SWAp) Health Fellows, has said that neurologists, state governments, schools, and parent groups will on April 2, 2026 unite, leads the largest Autism screening events across every Nigerian States to celebrate 2026 World Autism Day which will be marked by screening of hundreds of children in the biggest event of its kind in history.

Daily Independent earnt this from Sector-Wide-Approach (SWAp) Spokesperson, Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho who doubles as the Special Assistant to Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori on Youths Mobilization in a telephone conversation with our reporter today being on Thursday, March 26, 2026 as he stated that the morning of April 2, 2026, World Autism Awareness Day, something unprecedented will take place across Nigeria.

Speaking to our reporter on the forthcoming health transformation event to be held in Nigeria, Ambassador Uyero Erarawewho noted that the Autism screening events exercise across Nigerian States will take place in teaching hospitals and community centres, in university halls and government offices, in schools and parent group meeting rooms across almost every 36 State of the federation and FCT. He said: “Nigerian families will bring their children for free autism screening and consultation, for many of them it will be the first time”. . . .

 “What makes Spark a Spectrum 2026 different from any autism event Nigeria has seen before is the coalition behind it. This is not a foreign-led charity initiative. It is a mobilisation of Nigeria’s own health professionals, academics, government officials, and community leaders, working together under a shared conviction: that autistic Nigerians deserve to be seen, celebrated, and supported”.

“At the centre of that coalition are the health fellows of the Sector-Wide Approach Coordination Office, the SWAp, the Federal Government’s flagship framework for health sector renewal under the leadership of Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, CON, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.

Prof. Pate, a Harvard-trained physician who was recognized on TIME magazine’s 100 Health 2025 list, has led Nigeria’s most ambitious health reform programme in a generation”.

“Prof Pate’s Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative has mobilized over $1.57 billion in financing, revitalized primary healthcare centres across 36 states, and built a network of trained health programme officers who are now serving just like in the words of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum: ‘seeds of hope’ for the Nigerian health system”. . . .

 “The roundtable, being coordinated by Aliyu Ibrahim Usman of Al-Muhibbah Open University, Abuja, represents the first time autism has been placed on the legislative agenda at this level in Nigeria’s history.

If even one Senator leaves that room with a commitment to introduce or support disability inclusion legislation, it will mark a turning point for the 2.5 million Nigerians estimated to have autism, the vast majority of whom have never received a diagnosis, accessed therapy, or been supported by any formal government programme”. . . .

Across 32 countries, from South Africa to Morocco, from Guinea to the Philippines, from Saudi Arabia to Greece, 84 centres will open their doors simultaneously on April 2. Hundreds of children will be screened using validated tools”.

“Thousands of parents will receive a clear, compassionate response for the first time.

Thousands of community members who have never encountered autism awareness will sit beside a trained screener and learn something that could change a child’s life. . . .