Albania, Morocco First Ladies Arrive For Inaugural Autism Seminar

SEPANG, April 21 (Bernama)-- More first ladies and key world social advocators arrived here Sunday to attend the inaugural International Seminar on Autism 2014 to be held at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre on April 22 and 23. The First Lady of Albania, Odeta Nishani, was welcomed on arrival by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nancy Shukri. The First Lady of Morocco, Nabila Benkirane, and the Bangladesh Prime Minister's daughter, Saima Wazed Hossain are expected to arrive later Sunday. Saturday, the First Lady of the Kyrgyz Republic, Dr Raisa Atambaeva arrived here to attend the seminar. The wife of the Sri Lankan President, Shiranthi Wickramasinghe Rajapaksa, and the First Lady of Sudan, Fatima Khalid Ahmad Al Bashir, are expected to arrive Monday. The prime minister's wife, Rosmah Mansor is scheduled to receive courtesy calls on Monday from Shiranthi Rajapaksa, Dr Raisa Atambaeva and Saima Wazed. To be opened by Prime Minister Najib Razak, the seminar themed, "Austism Is Not A Tragedy, Ignorance Is", will focus on emphasising the importance of providing quality intervention services to children with autism. The seminar is organised by the Permata Programme jointly with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and non-governmental organisation, Autism Speaks, as a platform for the implementation of the autistic children's intervention programme known as the Permata Kurnia Programme, which is expected to start in May next year. Among the international speakers expected at the seminar are Prof Dr Eric Fomboune (Oregon Health and Science University), Prof Dr Cheryl Dissanayake (La Trobe University Australia) and Dr Wu Ruth Yu Yu (Taipei Teachers University) as well as several autism experts from Malaysia. The seminar will have about 1,500 local participants and 36 from foreign countries, who are involved with intervention services, parent support groups, skills training and education programmes on autism. -- BERNAMA