Bangladesh Looking For Collaboration With Malaysia To Develop New Training Module To Suit Local Culture

SERDANG (Selangor, Malaysia), April 23 (Bernama) -- Bangladesh is hoping for a close collaboration with Malaysia in developing the new training module for children with autisme, said Chairperson Of the Bangladesh Global Autisme Public Health, Saima Wazed Hossain. Saima who is also Bangladesh Prime Minister's daughter said South East Asian countries should work together to develop training modules that suit local culture. "The existing module is too dependent on the western module and therapy which are sometimes not effective locally," she told the media at a special interview here Tuesday. She represented Bangladesh together with 10 other first ladies and world known social activists at the International Seminar On Autisme 2014 on Tuesday. The seminar themed 'Autisme Is Not A Tragedy, Ignorance Is', focuses on the importance of implementing high quality intervention programmes for autistic children and sees 1,500 local participants and 36 from foreign countries. Saima who is a psychologist by profession said it would be easier to use those things that are at least in the region because there are a lot of similarities in terms of culture, religion and social aspects which are more translatable than taking things from western countries. "We are taking that but I believe in not reinventing the wheel, so if there is something that existed and similar, why not?," she said adding that the collaboration was also seen in sharing knowledge on higher education programmes that can then support the autistic to get a place in the work field. "For example, we have university programmes that are already established, so I'm hoping that many more things such as these will come and we can then share experiences with Malaysia on how we develop the services and the programmes here," "We can learn from that and also share our knowledge to develop our own tools that can benefit our region," she said. -- BERNAMA