All divisional headquarters in Sindh to get autism rehabilitation centres by year-end: CM

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah made public his plan on Friday to build rehabilitation centres for children with autism spectrum disorder in all the divisional headquarters of the province by the end of the current year.

However, he said, he required qualified and trained human resources all over the province who had the ability to run such specialised rehabilitation facilities for special children. The CM expressed these remarks as he visited the Centre for Autism Rehabilitation and Training Sindh in Gulistan-e-Jauhar to attend a programme on the eve of World Autism Awareness Day. He met children enrolled at the centre.

Shah said he was proud of the fact that his government had extended support under the mode of public-private partnership to establish the country’s first centre for the rehabilitation of autistic children.

He said another such centre had been built in Korangi and would soon start its operations. An additional rehabilitation facility had also been built in Hyderabad, he added. The CM was told that the centre had a waiting list of 1,500 autistic children who required admissions to the specialised facility for their rehabilitation.

He advised the management of the rehabilitation centre to provide him with the trained human resource to manage more such facilities, saying his government would readily arrange the resources required to construct more such institutions for special children. “I need trained human resources available all over the province having the passion and dedication to serve these children as I’ll construct more such facilities for their rehabilitation,” he said.

The chief minister announced that his government would provide financial assistance for building such satellite rehabilitation facilities in the remaining divisional headquarters of the province in Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas by the end of the year.

He said that in the next stage more such centres would be established at the district level in Sindh. He lamented that parents, especially those in the rural areas, didn’t have the awareness to diagnose if their children were born with autism.

The CM emphasised that autism centres should adopt programmes for proper rehabilitation of children from two years of age till the rest of their lives. He said that autistic children during rehabilitation should learn a skill which would enable them to gain financial independence in their practical life.

He recalled that his government had earlier collaborated with reputable private sector organisations in the health sector which had shown excellent results in the area of tertiary-level hospitals. He said that similar partnerships should be launched for rehabilitating autistic children.

The CM expressed the resolve of his government to extend assistance to more such institutions that had been working for the specialised care, education and rehabilitation of special children.