COLOMBO: Malaysia’s initiative to set up national austism centre Permata Kurnia has attracted the interest of Sri Lanka to follow likewise.
The Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor said this was conveyed to her by Sri Lanka’s First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksain their discussions in conjunction with her current visit to the South Asian country.
Rosmah, who is also the patron of the Permata Programme for early childhood education, said Sri Lanka’s interest in forging collaboration with Malaysia in autism related matters started when Shiranthi came to Putrajaya last April to attend an international seminar on autism.
“In our discussions, Sri Lanka showed very keen interest on Permata Kurnia which focuses on providing treatment to autistic children and counselling for the parents.
“After I stated the matters that needed to be given attention and the challenges we faced in developing this centre, they became more interested to learn from us and plan to visit us once it is up and running,” he told told Bernama and RTM after visiting the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children here yesterday.
Construction of Permata Kurnia on a 1.04-hectare site in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur started in November last year with the cost of RM28 million fully borne by the government.
It is scheduled to begin operations in September next year.
At the same time, Rosmah said she was confident Permata Kurnia could become a world class centre for autism, in view of it close collaboration with Autism Speaks, an international organisation on autism based in New York.
She said Autism Speaks had been a big help in the setting up of Permata Kurnia, apart from the cooperation from architects and local academicians who contributed their ideas and energy towards the realisation of t he centre.
Earlier, Rosmah and Shiranthi spent about an hour visiting the patients and their parents at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children’s wards and rehabilitation unit.
The Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children was set up in 1895 as a hospital for women and children before specialising only on children in the 1910s.
Dubbed as the largest paediatric hospital in South East Asia, the hospital has about 500 doctors including consultants and experienced medical officers with 930 beds in its wards.
Lady Ridgeway Hospital Director Dr Linton Padmasiri said the hospital served as a training centre for undergraduates and postgraduates, and treated about 1,000 to 1,200 out patients a day.
On autism, Dr Padmasiri said more than 1,000 patients had registered with the hospital’s psychiatric clinic which provides behavioral and speech therapy for autistic patients.
Lady Ridgeway Hospital also gave attention on educating the parents on how to deal with their less fortunate children, she added. — Bernama