SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Families and relatives of autistic children in the Kurdistan Region’s city of Sulaimani staged a protest on Sunday marking World Autism Awareness Day to demand better services and facilities. Diyar, a 16-year-old boy with autism, joined the protest with his parents in Sulaimani in an attempt to ensure better access to services for himself and others who face similar difficulties. According to his family, the authorities have failed in providing enough services for him. “Our lives have been unhappy with this child. His father and I will always be with him, we cannot ignore him for a minute,” Dilkhwaz Hussein, a resident of Sulaimani, told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat. “There is no government center to monitor them and there are only private ones so we cannot take the child there because of financial issues and it costs more than 400,000 Iraqi dinars every month for medicine and treatment. The government has scheduled a test to be conducted this year to register and examine another 600 children with autism in Sulaimani. “There are more than 600 new children with autism in Sulaimani and Halabja who have been approved and registered,” said Hiwa Rahman, acting general director of Sulaimani social welfare. “We are waiting for the ministry of finance to approve the examination and pay their salaries.” More than 3,000 people with autism in the Kurdistan Region have little assistance besides the 150,000 Iraqi dinars they receive every month. No facilities or laws have been implemented either. Autistic people and their families in the Kurdistan Region suffer from limited support from the government, which many families struggle to afford treatment provided by private centers. Some families have risked their lives by illegally migrating to Europe with the hope of obtaining better care for their autistic children there.
