Autism has meant that Hassan Fakhery, a 60-year-old from the town of Brak in the Wadi al Shatii district, had to move to a house in Tripoli. His son, Mohammed, is eight and he has been being treated for the disorder at the Tripoli Center for People with Special Needs for several years now; there are no such facilities in his hometown and Fakhery pays LYD1,000 a month for his son’s care.

Autism has meant that Hassan Fakhery, a 60-year-old from the town of Brak in the Wadi al Shatii district, had to move to a house in Tripoli. His son, Mohammed, is eight and he has been being treated for the disorder at the Tripoli Center for People with Special Needs for several years now; there are no such facilities in his hometown and Fakhery pays LYD1,000 a month for his son’s care.

Autism is classified as a neuro-developmental disorder and most often parents notice it in their children before the age of three: Symptoms include restricted or repetitive behavior, learning disabilities and impaired social interaction. Globally, around 1 percent of children are thought to suffer from one kind of autism or another but there are no accurate statistics for the rate of occurrence in Libya. However what is clear is that there are not enough facilities for those who do suffer from it.

“Tripoli has one state-owned centre, the Al Hadhaba Autism Center, which has 400 children,” says Nouri Bouseir, from the Ministry of Social Affairs in Tripoli. “But we have no accurate statistics as to how many autistic people there are in Libya,” he concedes.

Bouseir added that they were considering the possibility of opening new centers for people with special needs in Libya but that there was no specific deadline or place for this. There are also some private facilities.

Not Enough Care

Salmah Areel, who heads the Tripoli Center for People with Special Needs, said childrens’ cases are assessed and then they are trained in vocalization, touch and movement. When this succeeds, the children are admitted to mainstream schools.

The Ministry of Education has 58 schools in Libya which autistic students can attend, together with non-handicapped students in the same classrooms.

“The Ministry is working to add new schools to this list, covering all regions, and seeks to organize workshops where teachers for students with special needs can be trained,” explains Abdul Rahman Noqal, the head of the Special Needs Students Office at the Ministry.

Noqal says that he has also asked the government to provide better support and develop long term plans to help mainstream the disabled into Libyan society.

Mainstreaming Special Needs

“My son is not aggressive and he is continuously improving,” says the mother of one boy attending the Tripoli Center for People with Special Needs. How he behaves with his brothers and sisters is so much better since he enrolled, she notes. Her son started here when he was three years old, he is now six.

“I feel that there is injustice when the government does not support cases similar to my son’s,” the mother adds, before happily telling that her son will be able to attend a public school after his time at the center.

“It is difficult to deal with an autistic child,” Areel says, noting that parents are often both emotionally and financially overburdened. “We need support from specialized agencies and serious work to take care of these people. We have to develop a long term plan to secure a better life for people with special needs in Libya.”