International organisation's representative on visit to Moldova

Chisinau, 14 November /MOLDPRES/- Following
an invitation by First Lady Margareta Timofti, Assistant Director of Public
Health Research at Autism Speaks international organization Amy Daniels was
on a fact-collecting visit to Chisinau on 12-13 November, the presidential press service has reported.
The visit
was carried out as a result of Margareta Timofti’s participation in an annual
conference on autism from New York in September 2014. She had a meeting with
co-founders of the organisation Suzanne and Bob Wright. The heads of the
association expressed willingness to provide support to improve quality life
and social inclusion of disabled people from Moldova. The participants in the
event agreed on implementing in Moldova joint projects for the benefit of children
suffering from autism and their families.
Amy Daniels held talks with representatives of the NGOs and organizations providing
services in the field, as well as a group of parents of the children suffering
from autism in order to identify problems they face.
Also, Daniels met
representatives of the Health Ministry, Education Ministry, Labour, Social
Protection and Family Ministry and discussed the services the disabled children
receive.
Daniels visited the gymnasium No 2 from Chisinau, having 31 children in
need, including 9 children with autism, as well as special school for disabled
children No 6 from Chisinau. 
At the end of the visit, Daniels had a meeting with Margareta Timofti and
UNICEF Representative in Moldova Nune Mangasaryan to unveil the study’s
conclusions.
The
official was impressed about the achievements made by Moldova in disabled children’s
inclusion in regular schools, as well as about the good cooperation set between
the NGOs operating in autism and the Education Ministry. 
The
organisation’s representative recommended that the NGOs operating in the field
of autism to unite efforts, and the relevant ministries to set up an
interministerial committee, which should also include representatives of the
NGOs and/or parents on the matter.
The
identified needs are related to training specialists in discovering and early
diagnosis of autism cases, training non-specialists to be able to interact with
children with autism. Also, it is needed that the Health Ministry should become
member of the South-East European Autism Network (SEAN) for exchange of
experience and consultations.


















Margareta Timofti thanked Daniels for the
organisation’s intention to back the children with autism and their families
from Moldova. “I hope we could implement projects for the benefit of children
with autism from my country”, she concluded.