An Africa where inclusion is woven into the fabric of society, where every person’s potential is recognised, and no one is left behind.
ASNEN envisions an Africa in which inclusion is not an exception granted to some, but a condition of belonging shared by all. Guided by Ubuntu, we see a continent where compassion, reciprocity and dignity form the foundation of education and support , and where the shared experience and expertise of African families, educators and advocates come together in a model of inclusion that is truly our own.

To build a homegrown African model of inclusion, through knowledge, capacity building, advocacy and support, so that children, young people and adults with disabilities are included in education and in every stage of life.
ASNEN is a coalition of advocates, families, educators and allies committed to the full inclusion of children, young people and adults with disabilities and special needs. We create and share knowledge, build the capacity of those who teach and care, advocate for the realization of rights, and stand alongside families as they navigate the systems around them.

Our values are drawn from Ubuntu, the understanding that our humanity is bound to one another. They are written as behaviors rather than aspirations, so that members, partners and funders may hold us to them.

Utu: Dignity first
Utu is the Swahili expression of Ubuntu: humanness. We begin from the dignity of the child, not from the diagnosis. Disability describes a circumstance a person lives with. It never describes their worth, their capacity, or their claim on our respect.

Belonging: I am because we are
Ubuntu holds that a person is a person through other people. We build circles rather than services, caregivers connected to caregivers, teachers to teachers, families to communities. Where a person has been isolated, our first act is to end the isolation.

Harambee: Pulling together
Inclusion is not the specialist’s task, delegated and forgotten. It is the shared responsibility of families, schools, health workers, government and neighbors. We convene rather than compete, and we credit generously.

Knowledge Shared: Not held
Expertise in disability has too often been guarded, held in clinics, in English, behind fees. We move knowledge in the opposite direction: outward, into homes and classrooms, in the languages people actually use. Demystification is an act of solidarity.

Lived Experience Leads: Those who carry the work shape it
The mother who has raised a child with cerebral palsy for twelve years holds knowledge no training produces. We build leadership from lived experience, caregivers and persons with disabilities as facilitators, advocates and decision-makers, not as beneficiaries or case studies.

Uwazi: Honest accounting
Ubuntu binds us to one another, and that binding requires truthfulness. We report accurately, claim only what we have done, correct ourselves publicly when we are wrong, and account transparently to members, partners and funders.

Ubuntu “I am because we are”, is not a tagline at ASNEN. It is the reason the work takes the shape it does. It is why we convene rather than compete, why we build peer circles rather than waiting lists, why caregivers become facilitators, and why we hold that inclusion belongs to everyone rather than to specialists alone. A person is a person through other people. The child who has been hidden is one of us. The mother who has carried this alone is one of us. We are because they are.