Joy Adalia
The SM SaveMore grocery at the Light Mall in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila is making waves on social media after reports surfaced that the store hired three people with autism to help stock up its shelves.
It amazed a lot of people that the mall would hire persons with autism, especially considering that their behavior might be a little unpredictable at times and that society often shuns people who are “different” from themselves.
Autism is described as “a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.”
The Autism Society Philippines has been trying its best to help people with autism find jobs and to help them feel that they belong to the community as a whole. They have partnered with Independent Living Learning Center, the University of the Philippines, and now with SM to provide jobs for persons with autism.
Thankfully, their efforts have paid off. Aside from the SM supermarket branch in Light Mall having autistic workers, there are also others working in other centers in Metro Manila. It is the society’s hope that people will accept those with autism and not shun them or be afraid of them. It would also surely be great to see more people with autism working in other jobs not just in Metro Manila but in other parts of the country as well.
