World Vitiligo Day- A day to Spread Awareness about Vitiligo.
World Vitiligo Day |
The World Vitiligo Day, observed on
June 25, is an initiative aimed to build global awareness about vitiligo, a frequent and often disfiguring
skin disease that can have a significantly negative social or psychological
impact on patients, in part because of numerous misconceptions still present in
large parts of the world.
The idea
of a World Vitiligo Day was first nursed by Steve Haragadon, the founder of the
Vitiligo Friends network, and then developed and finalized by Ogo Maduewesi, a
Nigerian vitiligo patient who is the founder and Executive Director of the
Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation (VITSAF).
In
her words, “World Vitiligo Day is a day to create extensive awareness on
vitiligo and a day dedicated to all living with vitiligo globally”.
The
first World Vitiligo Day (also defined as “Vitiligo Awareness Day” or “Vitiligo
Purple Fun day”, from the color chosen as Vitiligo Awareness Color) was
observed on June 25, 2011. The choice of June 25 as World Vitiligo Day is a
memorial to musical artist Michael Jackson, who suffered from vitiligo
from 1986 until his death, which occurred on June 25, 2009. The main event of
the first World Vitiligo Day occurred at Silverbird Galleria’s Artrum in Lagos,
Nigeria, with the participation of several volunteers with different experiences
(dermatologists, motivational speakers, dancers, artists, comedians, patients),
united by the common will of spreading knowledge and awareness about vitiligo.
Simultaneously, other events took place in other parts of the world, organized
by local associations.
In 2012, Vitiligo
Research Foundation (VRF),
a non-profit organization aiming to fund and fast-track medical research, as
well as connect investigators, care providers, patients and philanthropists, to
accelerate vitiligo research and relieve suffering of patients, registered the Web domain name
25june.org and joined VITSAF and cooperating organizations to increase the
efficacy of their efforts in favor of global vitiligo awareness.
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