About Us
About CAN-Abilities
We see ourselves as a family in the world of autism acceptance. We are here to add our voices to those of many others who are acting to champion autism acceptance.
We are out to advocate and encourage Love, Understanding, Acceptance for autistic individuals and their families.
CAN- Abilities as a voice of hope and advocacy for families affected by autism. We contribute in our little way to relieve the needs of children with ASD and other disabilities by providing practical advice, moral as well as emotional support and raising awareness about autism and the challenges encountered by autistic persons and their families.
Our passion
Here at CAN-Abilities Foundation, we live and breath autism. Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects a person in a variety of ways. It can affect the way they process information, react to or relate to others, communicate and how they experience the world around them.
Autism is known as a “spectrum” disorder because there is wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms which people experience.
- This explains why at CAN-Abilities, we approach everyone as individuals, recognising that their reality is different from that of everyone else.
- Autism spectrum disorders or ASDs can affect anyone, irrespective of age gender, ethnicity, colour, social or political status.
Our Origins
CAN-Abilities was born out of the real-life experiences of parents of a child with complex physical and learning needs. We are a small family-founded charitable foundation. We were set up in 2015 to offer friendship and emotional support to families of parents and children living with autism.
As parents of a child who is autistic without speech, who has global development delay, cerebral palsy among others; we find ourselves constantly challenged and in need of support. We often find ourselves in the middle, with no one to turn to. As British Cameroonian parents, with no immediate family around, we often struggle because we come from a culture where disability is seen as a taboo.
A culture in which most habitually regard disability as a curse and those living with any form of disability are better left alone.
Armed with such experiences and to dispel these cultural myths about autism and disability, we aspire to make it possible for everyone to be treated as human beings. We recognise that we are all created equal, with equal rights which are not based on our abilities. We believe that together we CAN create autism and disability awareness. That we can all join together to educate, encourage, love, show understanding and acceptance to people living with disabilities and their families. Together we CAN make it possible for everyone we encounter to recognise and appreciate that there is 'ability in disability'
News & Updates
Please, watch this space for news and updates about the current and features events.
CAN-Abilities is a non-profit organisation. We support people living with autistic spectrum conditions and other learning disabilities and their families through everyday challenges. As a not for profit organisation we rely on donations from people like you.