‘Autism speaks in colors’ is the title of the exhibition that brought together children from several different cities in Albania.

Gerald, 11 was inspired by his friend, who is diagnosed with the autism spectrum, to create this painting in support of all children.

“I was inspired by my friend, who lives in my neighborhood and I got the idea to paint this child. I won the first prize, out of the best three paintings, I am very happy. What I wanted to show was that autism isn’t something different and that we are all the same,” said 11-year-old Gerald Abdurrahmanaj.

18 children in the ages 8 to 13 years old participated in this exhibition.

“I have a classmate with autism and I love him very much, I always help him when he needs me,” said one of the children participating in the exhibition.

“I have expressed my thoughts in this painting, by making two boys that are the same and one of them is autistic, but they are both connected by one thing, which is that they have many things in common,” said another child.

This competition came as a result of a collaboration between psychologists and sociologists, in order to show through art that what is special or unique should be accepted in a society.

“The paintings, drawings, sketches, although the colors and subject matters could be different, they translate into a child’s inner art world, which is much bigger than that of adults. What we as adults, learned from this exhibition, was exactly how much they are prone to help one another and be collaborative,” said Marsi Simo, sociologist.