Cameroon – The World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) was significantly observed on Saturday as rights groups advocated for autistic children to be given adequate education.
In the country, supporters say autistic children often can’t go to school because ‘utism is falsely believed to be a result of witchcraft’.
The Timely Performance Care Center, a school for disabled children in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, organized a campaign for parents and communities to stop the stigma that autistic kids often are subject to.
The center has an enrollment of 70 autistic children from a various region in Cameroon.
“We want parents to accept the children that God has given them and to be able to educate the society that these children are not a form of divine punishment for witchcraft or a class of any evil thing. These children have a lot to offer to society if given a chance. Give them the chance. The world needs to know what autism is. Accept individuals born and living with autism,” she said.
Fonyuy said in January 2021, the center organized a door-to-door campaign to urge parents to send their autistic children to school. She said the response was encouraging, but that many parents still hide their autistic children at home.
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To mark World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday, scores of community leaders, parents of autistic children and heads of educational establishments in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, emphasized at an event that autistic children, like any other children, need love, care and education.
Among the speakers was Carine Bevina, a psychologist at the University of Douala.
Ndefri Paul, 45, is the father of an 11-year-old autistic child.
Paul said he came out on World Autism Awareness Day to tell anyone who doubted it that autistic children can compete with other children if well educated. He says in 2021, his autistic son, like many children without autism, wrote and passed the entrance examination to get into secondary school.
The educational talk at the Douala city council courtyard on Saturday was part of activities marking World Autism Awareness Day.
Similar activities were held in towns, including Bafoussam, a western commercial city, Garoua and Maroua on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, and Yaounde.
Officials in Cameroon say there are 750,000 autistic children in the central African state. Sixty-five percent of them are denied education.
The U.N. says that autism is genetic and families with one child with autism have an increased risk of having another child with autism.
World Autism Awareness Day launched in 2007, celebrates the resilience of people affected by the disorder and supports causes that promote awareness of autism.
