Saima Wazed Hossain who spearheads autism campaign in Bangladesh has been awarded with the ‘WHO Excellence Award’ for her contribution in public health in the region.
Better known by her nickname, Putul, she is the daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim on Monday at a press briefing thanked the WHO for her selection while announcing the award.
He said the WHO Southeast Asia Region (SEARO) director Poonam Khetrapal Singh would hand over the award in a reception on Wednesday on the sidelines of the regional meeting.
Khetrapal Singh launched the award this year for acknowledging the contribution of individuals and institutions in public health.
The UN agency will make formal announcement of the two awardees including Putul on Tuesday.
A US-licenced school psychologist, Putul is the architect of South Asia Autism Network that brought the regional countries together to address the growing challenge of this neuro-development disorder.
It was at her initiative that Bangladesh hosted the first-ever global conference on autism in 2011, drawing leaders like the India’s Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi.
She later also spearheaded a proposal on autism in the WHO on behalf of Bangladesh.
The proposal was accepted this year by the World Health Assembly.
The WHO Director General Margaret Chan considering her “technical ability, experience, global representation in terms of diversity of knowledge, and approaches in the relevant field” made her an expert of her advisory panel on mental health.
She also put forward the idea of “holistic approach” for autism care to what she, in an international forum, said enable “access to medical, educational and employment opportunities throughout their (autistic children) entire life”.
Putul urged the region to develop culturally sensitive tools as she observed the Asian nations were “too dependent on Western modules and therapies” that might not be consistent with Asian cultures.
Autism drew global attention in recent years following a study revealing millions of children worldwide suffering in silence in the absence of adequate understanding of the problem.
These special children are unable to pick up self-care tasks – dressing, self-feeding, toileting – by watching and imitating. They cannot make eye-to-eye contact, and have a single-track thought process.
The problem usually begins to show up in the first three years of life, affecting the normal development of social and communication skills.
No one can say why, but the trend is rising.
But those gifted children show a particular talent like singing, painting, if they get proper environment.
Bangladesh has no data on the number of children suffering from the disorder, but a latest US study finds one in every 68 children to be autistic – a rate 30 percent higher than what it was three years ago.
Bangladesh will host a special session on autism on Sep 11 on the sidelines of the WHO regional meeting that will begin Tuesday.
Putul will chair the session while her mother, Prime Minister, will be the chief guest, the health minister said.
Source: Bd news24
You must be joking. Both WHO and Hasina’s daughter ignored the reality of Health issues in Bangladesh. Bangladesh needs help. What is she doing to improve the country’s poorest of all poor health care system?
You cannot walk into any medical facility to get a proper treatment. Animals in western world’s Veterinarian Clinics get better treatment than the people of Bangladesh.
I am talking about the high society, expensive medical clinics in the country. Forget about the ones run by the Government or the ones in the Union level.
What is she doing to improve that?
Autism is definitely nothing to throw away from the “book”. But the “horse” comes before the “cart”. Do what is needed to improve the Health Sector, which is zero(0). Then do whatever you need to get the “WHO Excellence Award”. This is simply ridiculous. Give me a break.