Saima Wazed Hossain says autism campaign will not lose steam

Saima Wazed Hossain, the prime minister’s daughter who spearheads autism campaign in Bangladesh, has said the government is working “very strategically” so that the neurodevelopment disorder never loses attention.

“Bangladesh is moving forward. We’ll move forward leaving no one behind,” she said, replying to a question at a dissemination seminar of a research finding at icddr,b on Monday.
 
A US-licenced school psychologist Hossain, better known by her nickname Putul, brought the disability issue to the forefront in Bangladesh in 2011, when she organised first autism meet of South Asia in Dhaka.
 
President of India’s then ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi was among the leaders who joined the event, being seen as an icebreaker for the cause of children suffering from autism.
 
A lot of activities began following the event. Parents who used to keep their children with autism inside home came out and formed group to raise awareness about the disorder.
 
However, an activist asked whether the hype would die down after someday like many other issues.
 

Putul acknowledged that some issues had died down after initial hype.

“I don’t want the same to happen in case of autism.

We have been working very strategically,” the chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopment Disorders said.

She said they were working in a coordinated way, and that’s why when “we talk health and education for the children with autism it needs to touch all children with disabilities”.
 
She said she was campaigning for the cause of autism as it had long been a “neglected” issue in Bangladesh.
 
“You have given me a big responsibility,” she told parents of the children with autism at the seminar.
 
Her campaign was aimed at changing perception of the people about autism.
 
The icddr,b study carried out among 388 mothers, who care their autistic children, in the Dhaka City found that one in every four of them suffer from depression.
 
Non-supportive attitude of neighbours was one of the factors for their depression, researchers identified.
 

One mother said the situation was “even unimaginable in rural areas” where there were no services and facilities for the children with autism.

The study was conducted to weigh the feasibility of creating a community-based support system in Bangladesh by empowering parents.

Putul said depression was an issue of “concern that needs to be addressed urgently”.

She stressed on training the caregivers on how to manage the children with autism.

“They (caregivers) have to be partner in the treatment process,” she said.