Twenty Arab countries are participating in the first four-day scientific autism forum at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry which commenced here on Sunday. About 800 men and women from Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, Jordan and Palestine and 20 autism children participated in the forum. In addition experts from Germany, France, USA and Britain took part in the deliberations. The scientific forum, under the patronage of Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, chief of the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Organizations (AGFUND) was held under the theme “Autism: reality and future.” It is aimed at managing and identifying the right requirements and needs of autistic children and children with special needs through human development concepts. Prince Talal called for enhancing efforts in the domain of autism at AGFUND which will continue to empower this sector and support its programs. “Our efforts should focus on raising awareness on integrating them in society, enhancing services offered to them, creating database of various kinds of autism devoting attention to diagnosis to go hand in hand in establishing necessary rehab and vocational centers,” said Prince Talal. “We hope that the outcome of this forum will supplement efforts and that your recommendations will be implemented,” Prince Talal added. Dr. Paul Shattock, vice president of the World Autism Organization, urged integration of the autistic children in the society by giving them a chance to share and creating meaningful decisions and to encourage them rather than threaten or abuse them. “On April 2nd 2008, the UN hosted its first Autism Awareness Day which was substantially the result of efforts from the state of Qatar. It will be repeated in 2009 and we hope for much bigger international input,” said Dr. Shattock. The event is being managed by Renad Company to celebrate the establishment of Jeddah Autism Center which works with cooperation from Al-Faisaliya Women's Welfare Society as the first autism center in the Arab World since 1993. Princess Fahdah Bint Saud Al-Saud, head of the Faisaliya Woman's Welfare Society, identified the main goals of the forum. They are, she said, to provide all official and private institutions to build centers for autistic children, to contribute our universities to prepare application researches for autism disturbances, to open special departments for this aspect and to finance these scientific researches in this regard. – SG __
