The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation (PWCF) awarded a small grant to GUBA Foundation in 2019 in support of ‘Autism; I am not a Stigma’ campaign. The programme aims to create educational autism awareness amongst African and BAME communities in the United Kingdomand Ghana.
In 2019, 70,000 plus people were registered autistic in the UK. However less than 170 are from the BAME communities as most people from this group are undiagnosed and not registered to receive any support. These families living with autism are often judged and the condition is heavily spiritualised in African communities. Parents feel alone, spouses have left families because of a belief of curses on the children and parents feel shunned from churches and groups. Our project aims to educate and challenge some of these cultural perceptions in African and BAME communities in the United Kingdom.
With the support the PWCF grant, the foundation hosted a series of educational autism awareness sessions in partnership with the National Autistic Society, and other community support groups such as the Brightstar’s Autistic Club, The Potter’s Hand and Jonny and Friends for Autism. The first of which took place at the House of Commons in London. Followed by 7 subsequent events at places of worship where members of the BAME community gather frequently. Throughout the months of July and August GUBA Foundation attended 7 places of worship where attendees of between 200-400 benefited at each venue.
