The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, and his wife, Ms. Maja Ivanova, marking the World Autism Awareness Day, today received representatives of the Macedonian Autism Scientific Association. The meeting was also attended by autistic children and their parents.

The representatives of the Association and parents briefed President Ivanov on the challenges they face in the treatment of autistic children in the Republic of Macedonia. They stressed the need for establishing a center for detection, early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of children and adults with autism.

President Ivanov with his wife Maja encouraged the representatives of the association and the parents to continue their active commitment in addressing the challenges and overcome the problems. Through campaigns to raise public awareness and support for concerned families, said President Ivanov, parents will see that they are not alone and also highlighted the need for drafting autism-related National Strategy. President Ivanov and his wife Ms. Maja Ivanova, said that they would support every initiative that will result from the association and the parents of autistic children. President Ivanov was presented the initiative to organize International Conference in Skopje with autism specialists, which was support by the President.

"In his capacity as President of the Macedonian Autism Association I would like to express my great gratitude to President Ivanov and the personnel within his cabinet, and certainly to Ms. Maja Ivanova for providing special significance of this day in the last three years. I can say that this is a day of historical importance for us. We believe that the President of the Republic of Macedonia would vastly influence the other competent institutions that, according to my opinion, in the last 20 years have done very few about the problem of autism, which is part of the public health, mental health and is a wider social problem", Vladimir Trajkovski, President of the Macedonian Autism Scientific Society said.

Trajkovski stressed the need for sub-specialization of autism special education teachers, as well as the problems in the education faced by children with autism.

"Autism as a problem is epidemic and the authorities have to take seriously the problem, because, if we start accession negotiations with the EU, one of the basic conditions will be the care for people with autism and people with disabilities", Trajkovski said.

Goran Radojev, parent of a child with autism, expressed his thankfulness for the possibility to meet President Ivanov and Ms. Maja Ivanova.

"This is a great day for Macedonia, this is a great day for autism in Macedonia, this is the biggest day for autistic children in Macedonia. Huge gratitude to President Ivanov for this meeting. When I remember when we started in 2005, what have been achieved so far is a huge step forward for all those who are concerned with the problem called autism. The National Autism Association has been established several years ago. We are active in providing the best treatments, whether behavioral or biomedical for autistic children", Radojev said and appealed to parents never to give up treating their autistic children.