Bahrain: A new society dedicated to autism has been formed by a group of parents whose children are diagnosed with the condition.
The Bahrain Autistic Society has now been officially registered with the Labour and Social Development Ministry, its head Ahmed Al Shakar told the GDN.
It has been launched by 11 founding members and aims to increase awareness of autism in Bahrain.
“The society is founded by 11 people who, like me, all have autistic children,” Mr Al Shakar explained.
“We applied in May last year to the Social Development Ministry because we wanted to set up a society.
“Having a society was important so that we could work together and explain the issues we all faced, rather than putting our cases forth as individuals and having no real influence.”
Mr Al Shakar’s five-year-old son Mohammed has been diagnosed with autism and attends classes at Kayan Special Education, in Salmabad.
He said parents were paying BD250 to BD400 a month, depending on when they enrolled their child, for specialist classes.
As a result, one of the two main goals of the society is to persuade authorities to open a government school for children with autism.
The other is to set up a medical centre dedicated to helping those with autism and able to conduct related tests, such as blood analysis to determine the best diet for each child.
“We don’t have a centre that can do these tests in Bahrain, so we were put under pressure to send them abroad,” he said.
“We want a specialist centre in Bahrain that can do these tests.
“We also need to have a government school that can teach the children to be useful members of society and integrate well.
“What happens with a lot of parents is they take out loans in order to be able to pay all the fees for their children’s health and fall into debt.
“The private institutions that deal with autistic children in Bahrain have waiting lists of hundreds of people.
“Autism needs to be addressed as early as possible, as the longer it’s left the harder it is to break through to the child.”
Mr Al Shakar revealed that parents of autistic children in Bahrain were currently spending thousands of dinars every year on private education and other associated expenses.
“I pay BD250 a month there (at Kayan Special Education), so BD3,000 a year,” he said.
“There are other members who pay more, some BD300 a month and others BD400.
“The reason I pay less is because I was one of the first parents who enrolled their child at the school back when it opened in September 2013.
“Others pay more because they want specialist lessons to ensure their children can do things like maintaining eye contact in order to integrate better with society.
“We also have other huge expenses, like paying BD2,000 to send blood samples abroad to understand exactly what food is best for them.
“They also have to eat organic food as they have a sensitivity to many things, including casein in milk and to gluten.
“These specialist foods are also expensive.”
The costs can be particularly difficult to meet for parents who have to give up work to take care of their children.
“The only solution at the moment is private centres or for mothers to quit their jobs and just take care of the child – and this isn’t a solution,” he said.
“They won’t learn or be educated in that instance (if they do not attend school).
“I feel like this issue is an open wound inside me, every time I see my son.
“I used to be a journalist and one of the main issues I was an advocate for was autism.
“At the time, I was married, but we didn’t have any children.
“I never dreamt I would one day be a father to an autistic child.”
However, Mr Al Shakar stressed that just because children with autism can display behavioural difficulties, they still had a lot to offer.
“There are several types of autism ranging from those who don’t break objects to those who will hit themselves and their family, break things, cry and scream in crowded places or gatherings,” he said.
“There are great minds that are on the autism scale like Einstein.
“If you take care of these children and prepare them properly, they could be geniuses.”
For more information on the society, follow the Instagram account @bahrain_autistics.
laala@gdn.com.bh
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