I can only help specifically with the last part of your message, as I am not familiar with the services offered in Cairo for Special Needs children. However, I did attend a meeting a couple of years ago where they said that there were only sufficient school places for about 1/3 of the special needs children in Cairo! So you will be very lucky if you find a place for your frends child as I am sure all the good schools will have waiting lists, and probably the indifferent ones too.

But basically the term "special needs" is a broad umbrella term for any children whose educational needs cannot be properly served within the normal school system without additional support/ help/ expertise. So it could mean children who have a physical, learning, or behavioural difficulty, although it often refers to children who have a mild to moderate learning difficulty or more severe mental retardation. Very often children with autism are offered services with these children, due to a lack of sufficient facilities for them or due to their diagnosis of also having a degree of mental retardation. Hope that was of some help and that someone can direct you to possible suitable services.

alhamdulillah, there is some interest and awareness appearing in Egypt for the subject, and inshaAllah you'll find the right school or help here:
http://www.lrcegypt.com/main.htm