CAN as an organisation was born out of the resolutions of the first Africa CBR conference, which took place in Uganda in 2001 at the Uganda National Institute of Special Education (UNISE).
At this conference, members felt that there were four areas for action: (a) to initiate the formation of national CBR Associations; (b) to improve the capacity for sharing information about good CBR practice (c) to review CBR training programmes in order to promote their synchronisation; and (d) to organise regular CBR conferences in Africa, starting with one in 2004.
Subsequently these members met to form an organisation that would promote the sharing of information on CBR practice and other pertinent issues in this field. It was agreed CAN would support CBR initiatives to document and share information on good practices.
Since its founding conference in 2001, CAN has organised CBR Africa conferences held in Malawi in 2004, South Africa in 2007, and Nigeria in 2010, Kenya in 2014, and has produced and disseminated CBR books covering proceedings of the conferences.
It has also facilitated 16 writing workshops in different African countries where CBR workers, including persons with disabilities, have been trained in documentation and their articles published in a book and on the CAN website.CAN has also compiled a CBR directory for Africa which currently features 1,700 members from 97 countries.
CAN has had five Executive Committees with the current one having members from; Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Uganda, and Kenya.
The UK based CP Trust has been CAN’s major donor throughout its history and has played a vital role in the achievements of CAN to date. CAN are extremely grateful to the CP Trust for their significant support.