From December 9-11, Vitiligo Educate Inspire & Support SXM (VEISS) was hosting a health and wellness celebration weekend for vitiligo sufferers and supporters.
VEISS, Vitiligo Educate Inspire & Support SXM, is a non-profit organization founded by Gerline "Lilly" Isaac in June 2021 whose goal is to enable people living with vitiligo to gain confidence and self-esteem while doing facing and overcoming the psychological trauma caused by this lifelong autoimmune disease. Vitiligo is a disease of the epidermis that is characterized by white spots, or depigmentation, which appear and extend especially on the face, extremities and joints. During the launch party this Friday, December 9 at the Yacht Club of Marigot, many testimonies were shared, on the discovery of the diagnosis, the depression that often results from it and the acceptance of the disease. Always with the aim of educating, inspiring and supporting the community, VEISS intends to raise awareness among the population and the youth of Saint-Martin about this pathology which affects 70 million people worldwide. The strong speeches of the members of the association were greeted with applause. The interventions of Doctor Nathalie Humphrey, Nalia Muriel, Doctor Tasheena Maccow Thomas, Akenna Kublal and Sharon King, founder of Litty Ligo in Boston, Massachusetts, and diagnosed at the age of 11, recalled the need for talk about the disease in order to de-dramatize it, whether in the eyes of patients but also and above all of the rest of the population, starting with children. In 2023, the VEISS association will visit schools to carry out interventions to raise awareness of vitiligo, on both sides of the island, by advocating the tolerance that Gerline suffered from when she was a child, harassed and bullied by a lot because of her illness, which she has now made a strength of. Michel Petit, 4th vice-president of the Collectivity, shared his disappointment to learn that the subsidy requested by VEISS had been refused by the COM and promised during his speech that it would be granted to him. 'next year. In the meantime, the association will not stop to deploy other actions by chanting "I do not see color, I see love" ("I do not see color, I see love"), rightly title. _VX
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