Palestine: Leave it to a Mom to Create Infrastructure from Dust

In this series of profile pieces, I am detailing the voices of those impacted by the heavy circumstances in areas of conflict. For our purposes, the health and welfare of the autistic community eclipses geo-political commentary.  

At the beginning of May in Bethlehem, the founder of Autism Superhero Palestine, Suha Najjar, prepared a large room in a community center for a day of painting and art. Autism families trickled in and found their own bin of art supplies and plenty of table space to bring their own creativity to life. Children lit the room up with smiles and parents started to relax as they realized that they were emotionally safe among others with similar family dynamics. The gratitude for belonging was palpable and it brought levity and joy to a community that is underrepresented and oftentimes misunderstood.  

In Palestine, there are no official statistics on the number of children diagnosed with autism. The government infrastructure to provide resources and services doesn’t exist, resulting in a lack of comprehensive autism centers and specialized experts in the field, including diagnosticians and therapists. Awareness is low and poverty is high, leading to incredible hardships experienced by families with special needs.

As a mother with a child on the spectrum in the West Bank, Suha needed to support her son.

So she became the infrastructure.

Suha launched Autism Superhero Palestine, a nonprofit organization to support families, mothers and children. Within three years, she was serving 350 families, offering programs in two categories: Education and Direct Services.

In Suha’s words, “It takes a village to help a child with autism,” so her first area of concentration is to educate families on autism beyond the name, conduct support groups, train parents and caregivers on behavioral methods, and provide guidance on how to navigate the school system. 

Accessing education for her son was when Suha truly stepped into her power. Demanding inclusion within the public school system, she battled the special education department in Palestine to provide him a shadow in class. Her advocacy resulted in a law that allowed children with autism to attend school with an aid. Due to a lack of funding, she served as her son’s shadow for four years and then abruptly stopped due to a new law that prohibited parents working as their child’s aid. Fighting for her son’s access again, she pressed the ministry again to find him an adequate shadow. 

Today, many parents are still unable to pay the salary of a shadow teacher due to economic hardship, as a result, many autistic children are deprived of their right to proper and special education. Her team has expanded their advocacy efforts to include autism under the disabled healthcare insurance within the Palestinian ministry health system.

In her second area of focus, Autism Superhero Palestine provides direct services to children, including swimming, horses, art, sensory management and gross-motor skill play therapies. 

Suha tirelessly works for her community, constructing more than 300 three-ring binders for children using the PECs protocol for speech therapy. No resources to provide tablets, each binder takes her 13 hours to put together.

She also takes time to sit with mothers who struggle with isolation because of the under-education or miseducation of family members who don’t understand the diagnosis. One such mother recently approached Suha crying that the success of another child made her look bad in front of her own family. Suha took that as an opportunity to teach about brain plasticity, therapies, stigma, and love.

Suha feels the enormous gift of this opportunity while also understanding the obligation. She eyes expansion to bring on additional staff and building out programming for adults on the spectrum.

The Global Autism Coalition is proud to work alongside Autism Superhero Palestine as it deepens and broadens its impact.