Autism in Egypt

Autism is something that not all of us know about; most of us don’t know how much autistic children suffer. When I heard about autism I wanted to know more about it and how it is covered in Egypt so I searched on online articles, websites and TV shows I noticed that; Autism is nonexistent for many Egyptians. In Arab world, the field of child psychiatry is relatively new. Until the late 90’s autism wasn’t the subject of interest in the Arab world; Due to lack of awareness and culture besides lack of resources contribute to the unmet needs of autistic people in the Arab world; terrific effort is needed to raise awareness of policy makers towards the need for implementation of services and research plans aiming to bridge the gap between needs and services. The fact of lack of awareness towards autism in the Middle East is starting to change. This is because of the number of researches made and the non-profit organizations that were established; these provide services and training for autistic children and their parents. Autistic children in Egypt face many obstacles for example: the misdiagnosis due to the lack of awareness, lack of specialized teachers and trainers, can’t easily find acceptance into schools, parents face financial problems due to the high costs needed from the parents to take care of their autistic children, lack of information provided on such an issue in both medical schools and internet, and finally the lack of support from the government. Media should play an important role in such an issue to raise awareness about autism and to help these kids to live a better life and have their rights in our society.

The only non-profit organization that is trying to raise the awareness in the Egyptian society towards Autism is “ The Egyptian Autistic Society”, and they’re trying to give full explanation on what Autism is.

Dalia Soliman the founder of “Egyptian Autistic Society” when she was studying abroad and returned back to Egypt she was shocked to find out that there was nothing established for children with autism. She started in establishing the Egyptian Autistic Society in 1999; at that time most centers just focused on special needs in general and didn’t have services that are specialized for autistic children. She offered training in autism for pediatricians, nurses, schoolteachers, and primary health care providers.

She also decided to plan several events in April to raise awareness for autistic children and raise people’s awareness and understanding of the disease. And even till now EAS is still the only non-profit organization that focuses on the suitable treatment and awareness of autism. It’s a place for parents to turn to for guidance and information about potential treatment approaches; this depends on the level that the autistic child is at.

Obstacles autistic children face in Egypt due to the lack of awareness.

First, misdiagnosis, the lack of awareness in the Egyptian society was the main reason for parents with autistic children to struggle just to get diagnose for their children and this is due to the lack of awareness.

“We have a very serious problem of under-diagnosis in Egypt and the Arab world. Many pediatricians fail to understand the signs of autism so the children never get the proper care and treatment they need” as Dalia Soliman explain.      “Online website”

Dalia Soliman also said that when she started 14 years ago, 80 percent of the cases were misdiagnosed. Many parents were told that their kids were suffering from cerebral palsy, but when EAS launched their campaign they diagnosed 1000 new cases.

The cause of autism isn’t determined yet and this is due to the lack of awareness about it. But increasing awareness about autism this may help in early treatment.

“It is difficult because even for us, doctors, we have very little information on autism” as Dr Sherif Atallah a psychiatrist who attended the event of the first awareness campaign that was launched in Egypt.     “Egypt Today”

While it’s so difficult for autistic children to get the right diagnose in Cairo the situation in governorates is more sorrowful; outside Cairo is impossible not just tough. If people where lucky to get a diagnosis, they may be forced to move to Cairo or sometimes other people visit EAS, once a month or every few months. Dalia Soliman pointed out that this is difficult and we need to have services available in all governorates.

Second obstacle, is the lack of specialized trainers and teachers.

Dalia Soliman clarifies “ The associations concerned with autism suffer from shortage of trainers”

Maha Emad EL-Din who was representing the ministry of health at World Autism Awareness Day said that they need centers to train people to be able to properly educate or deal with those with autism.

According to the specialists “One in every 250 children in Egypt is born with autism.” However, there is only one center that trains autistic children. This was announced during the annual campaign of raising awareness about autism that was held in April.                     “9 April 2013 “Al Jazeera online”

Third problem autistic children face is that they can’t easily find acceptance in schools and the financial problems due to the high costs needed from the parents to take care of their autistic children.

For special needs children to attend mainstream schools, they are required to undergo an IQ test. This would be so hard for autistic children that suffer from lack of communication to undergo this test and they will obviously fail. Even if they were able to make it to mainstream school they will need to be accompanied with shadow teachers, which will cost about 1000 per month, some parents couldn’t afford all this money and if they did, not all schools accept autistic children. Despite of the existence of law providing for integration within schools, still autistic children aren’t accepted in private schools and the condition is even worse in public schools. 

“While on paper many schools take autistic children, in practice very few do” as Eman Gaber a deputy manager of the children’s department at the general secretariat of mental health in Abbassiya mental hospital explain”

“Al Ahram online - Yasmine Fathi 3 April 2013”

When a survey was done in 2012 to see if parents will accept autistic children with their children in schools or not? The result was that the majority said no.

High costs needed from the parents to take care of their autistic children, not all parents to take care of their autistic children not all parents can afford especially poor families. These costs might reach 100 pounds per hour in private schools, that means an autistic child nearly need 10 thousand pounds per month.

For autistic children to learn basic social, occupational, and speech skills they need at least 4o hours of one-to-one training a week for several years.

“The overall costs may add up to more than 5000LE per month” as Ranwa

Yehia a former journalist, who had an autistic son, explain.

Specialized programs started to be used; called “Head Start” and this is a full day program. This program will help poor families who find difficulties to afford money needed for their children and the fact that their children sometimes drop off mainstream schools since teachers in these schools aren’t trained to handle autistic children.

Fourth is, the lack of information provided about autism in general on the Internet. When Ranwa Yehia was surfing the Internet to find information about autism because she had a son who suffered from autism she was shocked that she found very few information in Arabic for Egyptian mothers.

According to Ranwa Yehia “There isn’t enough awareness about autism in Egypt or other countries in the region.”

Finally, There is lack of support from the government towards associations that take care of autistic children, schools, and for autistic children to have their rights in our Egyptian society.

Ranwa Yehia argues “Discrimination comes mostly from the government, regarding mainstream autistic children within the educational system”.

Another point is that autistic males in Egypt are not exempted for the army; this is because autism isn’t recognized as a disability.

From Ranwa Yehias’ point of view “this can only be solved by nation-wide governmental policies to support parents facing this situation”.

Awareness campaigns were held to raise people’s awareness towards autistic children. There was a national day for autism awareness held under the Egyptian association for autism. This words were announced by the TV presenter Amr EL-laithy, The main points that was announced during the conference that between each 800 kids in Egypt there is one born with autism. Moreover, there are only 5% of work places for all retarded Egyptians and even those 5% they don’t take them, it’s just a routine show.  

Einstein, Bill gates, and Tom cruise were autistic and they are geniuses just because of their healthy and caring environment. While in Egypt autistic males in Egypt are not exempted for the army; this is because autism isn’t recognized as a disability, while at the same time people with flatfoot get such an excuse!

“They need their legal rights in Egypt”.

“Egypt has, for the first time launched its own awareness campaign, marking the country’s first wide-scale efforts dedicated towards autism awareness.” “Passant Rabie- Egypt Today.”

Their slogan was “ I’m autistic give me a chance”. The campaign launched early on April 2 from the headquarters of the EAS to Wadi Degla where the event was held. Special guests attended to help in raising the awareness towards autism, including, Amr El-Laithy who will help in raising awareness through his program, Hisham Abbass as media spokesperson, and finally Hend Sabry who participated in documentary about autism by society.

As Dalia Soliman says, “ we faced a lot of problems such as lack of awareness on autism, lack of funding, lack of specialized teachers and not enough information [being taught about autism] in medical schools.”

Almost 70 years later, still the awareness on autism disorder and how it differs from other metal diseases is very little. All the information gathered proves that proper treatment and integration is needed and that won’t happen unless we raise awareness about autism.

Finally, Dalia Soliman is trying her best to get both rights and services for autistic children.

In Amr El-Laithy TV show, He had an interview with one of the parents with an autistic child; she said that at the beginning her son was misdiagnosed by more than 20 doctors as a mentally retarded or increase the level of electricity in the brain, she also added that lack of schools is noticeable thing in these cases but no one showed any kind of care, and that the treatments are very expensive for a poor family to afford. Moreover, she said that they need school to deal with autistic children in Egypt so they can learn, as they can’t be accepted in normal schools.