Al Wafa centres for kids

Al Namaani added, “We have been setting up workshops, seminars and lectures at Smart Training Centre to educate parents about autism and help them to deal with their autistic child.

Currently, there are 27 government centres called “Al Wafa” for disabled children, and another 31 in the private sector. Despite the increase in centres related to autism, Al Namaani says the issue now is one of location.

“Almost 60 per cent of the centres are in Muscat which is something that we are trying to change, because it means that services are too centralised. There are many Wilayats that don’t have any services for autistic children,” Al Namaani added. Oman Autism Society has plans to open an innovative school for autistic children.

“One of our future projects is Al Hayah school for autistic children. It will be the first in Oman and we plan to install state of the art technology and equipment that will help in the development of each child, in addition to trained staff who specialise in dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorder cases.

“As an NGO we continuously need support from the private and public sector in our work. We hope that Ministries will ease the opening of such centres. We also hope that the private sector would support the much-needed programmes related to autism.

According to the Ministry of Social Development, there are 2,235 children enrolled in Wafa centres for the rehabilitation of disabled children. Overall, there are 27 centres throughout the Sultanate that provide daytime care to children between the ages of 2-14, 5 days a week.

These centres care for children with visual, hearing and physical disabilities, as well as Down Syndrome and autism.