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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Living with autism in the Kurdistan Region’s Raparin administration is difficult due to the lack of available facilities and funding.
Khalid Mahmoud is a resident of Hajiawa and his three daughters and son have different degrees of autism.
“Our lives are extremely difficult, we cannot survive without the help of donors. My salary of 335,000 Iraqi dinars ($24) is not enough for anything and my children have to wear diapers all the time, they get dirty, and a pack of diapers costs 13,000 Iraqi dinars but is not enough for anything, I have to buy it often,” Mahmoud told Rudaw’s Abubakir Ismael last month.
A facility in Raparin that was previously built for kindergartens has been turned into an autism center, but due to a lack of budget, the center has not been opened yet.
Excluding two existing NGOs helping autism patients, there are no government-funded centers in the Raparin administration.
The director of social development supervision of the Raparin administration mentioned that 11 employees and two vehicles have been made available to open an autism center in Hajiawa, but the renovation of the building has not started yet due no funds.
“Unfortunately, neither we as the government nor the private sector have any advanced autism centers in the region. Wealthy families take their children to other provinces for training,” Shamal Abbas, director of social welfare and development in the Raparin administration said.
The number of children with autism in the Raparin administration was 20 in 2012, but in the past 10 years the number has increased to 205 children. This number only includes those children registered by the medical committee, according to the data from Raparin social development monitor.
Some families have risked their lives by illegally migrating to Europe with the hope of obtaining better care for their autistic children there.
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