World Cerebral Palsy Day: Sunday October 6 2019

World Cerebral Palsy (CP) Day is Sunday October 6 2019. More than just an awareness day, it is an opportunity to:

1. Celebrate and express pride in the lives and achievements of those with CP and the people and the organisations that support them

2. Create a powerful voice for those with CP to change their world

3. Connect organisations across the globe so they are better equipped to meet the needs of those with CP

4. Create new solutions to everyday problems

5. Act as a catalyst for social change and education campaigns that create solutions to universal challenges

6. Produce tangible, actions and outcomes that measurably improve the lives of those with CP

7. Raise awareness of CP and the issues that affect people with CP at a local, national and international level to create more inclusive societies.

The project is coordinated by the World Cerebral Palsy Initiative, a group of non-profit cerebral palsy organisations with a global vision to create real change for people living with CP.

About cerebral palsy

There are 17 million people across the world living with cerebral palsy (CP). Another 350 million people are closely connected to a child or adult with CP. It is the most common physical disability in childhood. CP is a permanent disability that affects movement. Its impact can range from a weakness in one hand, to almost a complete lack of voluntary movement.

It is a complex disability:

• 1 in 4 children with CP cannot talk
• 1 in 4 cannot walk
• 1 in 2 have an intellectual disability
• 1 in 4 have epilepsy.

* CP is a lifelong disability and there is no known cure.

Download the What is Cerebral Palsy? and the Cerebral Palsy: Diagnosis and Treatment infographic posters  (PDFs)

Reference: * Novak I, Hines M,Goldsmith S, Barclay R (2012) Clinical Prognostic Messages from a Systematic Review on Cerebral Palsy, Pediatrics, 130:5

Change My World in 1 Minute

From 2012 to 2014, World CP Day focused on an innovation campaign called Change My World in 1 Minute. We sought ideas for products and services that needed to be invented for people with CP, and then challenged designers and engineers to create a prototype and win a share of a large prize pool. Read more about this campaign and the prize winners on our Invent It page.