Shortly About Us Defying the odds today Marthe – Marie Kohne is living proof that MIRACLES do happen as the Surgeon told her parents she had a 10% chance of surviving. Diagnosed with Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy her disability has never stopped her from leading a very full and remarkable life. Marthe-Marie's passion in life is to live life to full without looking back at regrets. She is a goal-oriented person who believes that setting goals promotes you much farther in life than just living from day-to-day. Every little challenge is a opportunity for her to learn and grow. | ||
She embraced her “package” and turned it into a message she can share with people. She chose progress over perfection, taking that step creating the place and space for acceptance and inclusion. She had been truly blessed with a special determination and a very positive attitude. Both Marthe-Marie and her team are committed to continue education, raising awareness and creating change, including non-disabled people in the world of the disabled and to enable people with disabilities to be included in Society. | ||
Our Vision: Assist in creating accommodating space where kids and adults with Cerebral Palsy / Disabilities will have equal access to treatment and assistive devices, which will enable them to thrive & reach their full potential to the best of their ability. | ||
Our Mission:
| ||
How you can make a difference:
| ||
Why Abilities Without Limits:
She decided to
start up the NPC, Abilities Without Limits as she realized that there are a lot
of people out there that don’t know much, especially about Cerebral Palsy, they
are unsure how to communicate with disabled people. Since I started my
Abilities Without Limits journey, I also realised that we can’t expect people
to ask questions if they don’t know what to ask. Educating people and raising
awareness are absolutely vital in order to help us all to bridge the gap to a
more inclusive society. | ||
Our Strategic Objectives | ||
 | ||
Focus on the importance of medical treatment for kids with Cerebral Palsy by breaking down the current barriers and bridge the current gaps through globally supported projects & programs. | ||
 | ||
Focus on the importance of treating people with Disabilities (Cerebral Palsy) with dignity and respect, through people in the CP community sharing their experiences and expertise. | ||
 | ||
Focus on the wellbeing of both kids and adults with Cerebral Palsy through people, especially in the CP medical field sharing their experiences and expertise. | ||
Article: Understanding VS Explaining Both are difficult, understanding if you don’t know what it’s about and explaining if you don’t know what’s happening. You can’t expect a person to understand if they don’t know what it’s about or don’t know what to ask eg: they might see a person with Cerebral Palsy experiencing jerks, spasms or chronic pain, but they don’t know why it’s happening. What happens when a person with Cerebral Palsy experience the jerks, spasms or chronic pain? That’s quite tricky to explain as we don’t always know why our CP body reacts certain ways. Eventhough there are times we know what triggers it there are also times we don’t always know why or when it will happen and what causes it to happen. So when we try to explain it there are times that we get the following response: “ oh, I get the same pain and spasms. You must just get over it” or “You just have to fit in. No one is going to feel sorry for you”. These are just a few examples I’ve mentioned. Let me explain: We don’t want any one to pity us ; your spasm, chronic pain is not the same as what a person with Cerebral Palsy experience. So you’ll probably ask: “ What’s the difference ?” I’ll explain it the best way possible: - When a non-disable person experience pain they can control it as their muscles are voluntary. With voluntary muscles they have much more control, which causes less spasm/ cramps, pain and therefor the possibility of inflammation are less. - When a person with Cerebral Palsy experience pain they cannot control it as their muscles are involuntary and they don’t have much muscle control ( if any at times), which causes more spasms, more pain, then again spasms and more and more pain, which causes inflammation. This is really like a “inner- body” ripple effect. It can be extremely painful. Some of those with Cerebral Palsy experience excruciating pain. There are medication, medical practitioners and Neurologist that can prescribe medication specifically for CP muscles to ease the spasms and jerks. You might ask: “Why does a person with CP have involuntary muscles? “The messages are n communicated from the brain to the body, but the nerve and the muscles don’t always receive the messages. So it literally causes a communication gap / distortion of messages, because the nerve doesn’t know what the muscle wants and vice versa. I call it “chaotic communication”. Then the muscle tone increases and that’s what you don’t want. Sometimes mild or sometimes extreme depending on the severity of the CP. Another way I explain it to a person is by asking them: “Can you stop your eyes from blinking?” The response: “No, it’s to difficult. I have no control stopping my eye to blink”. Now that’s because the muscles that causes the eyes to blink are similar to involuntary muscles. I hope what I’ve explained above gives you a bit more understanding of what Cerebral Palsy is. Please feel free to ask questions or even give feedback | ||