Prime Minister Hun Sen has stepped in to help with the treatment of a child in Siem Reap province who suffers from severe autism, according to his social media post.
On October 22 Hun Sen met with 3,200 families who volunteered to move out Angkor Archaeological Park and other areas under the control of the Apsara National Authority to the Peak Sneng area. When he was leaving the podium he met a woman with a 9-year-old girl with autism.
Seeing the situation of the family and the child, Hun Sen decided that he would provide financial aid and other support to the family, according to his post.
He told the Ministry of Health secretary of state York Sambath to have the child seen at Kantha Bopha hospital immediately.
The mother of the child said that she noted her daughter didn’t behave like other children and she took her to Kantha Bopha hospital in Siem Reap, but there was no improvement. When the child reached two years old, she brought her to Angkor Hospital for Children, but the situation had not improved.
“York Sambath said medical doctors will try their best to help this girl,” the prime minister’s post said.
According to the WHO, autism is a developmental disorder characterized by some degree of difficulty with communication and social interaction. It is caused by differences in the brain due to genetics, and as such it can’t be cured, but there are a number of methods that parents with children of autism can learn in order to better cope with the situation and make life easier for the autistic child.
