Thanks to the support of the Czech Agency for Development the Early Intervention Center has started operating in Chisinau to provide assistance to children with presumptive diagnosis of "autism".

Andrei Girleanu, coordinator of the project "Assistance to Children with Autism and Rare Genetic Diseases," said at a press conference at the INFOTAG agency on Thursday that "this is only one of the most significant achievements of the project, which started in January 2018 and will end by the new year."

He stressed that the problem of autism is not only a phenomenon in Moldova, but in many states around the world.

"The authorities, public associations of parents of autistic children, and international organizations work together to solve these issues in most states. The experience of the Czech Republic, where there are methods and practices to overcome this syndrome and involve children in the socially active life of modern society, helped us a lot in this sense," the specialist said.

According to him, with the appearance of the center in Chisinau, it became possible to clearly determine the diagnosis of a child suspected of having autism.

"At the end of 2018 throughout the country we had 1,400 children with this problem, and this year, thanks to the work of the center, 360 children with autism have been identified. It's important to identify this at an early stage in order to then identify options for the social adaptation of minors," Girleanu said.

The budget of the project is more than 900 thousand euros. These funds created two mobile teams of trained professionals who can travel to the territories to help in a crisis situation in families where there are children with suspected genetic diseases.

"With the help of Czech partners, many actions were conducted, for example, 300 guides for parents of autistic children were published, a trip to the Czech Republic was organized for 20 people, dozens of trainings and online courses were held," said the coordinator.