New members of the International OI Community in Pakistan!

On Tuesday 25 November CLAN was proud to partner with colleagues and families at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Karachi to celebrate the launch of Pakistan's first Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) Support Club.

With around 16 families gathering to share stories, experiences and questions, this was an important day for connecting and supporting. Families were introduced to efforts internationally to optimise quality of life for children living with OI, and in particular, the fantastic achievements of communities in Vietnam and Indonesia (FOSTEO!!) were communicated. (read the full story)

Vietnam has got TALENT!

We've just recently learned of Vietnam has got Talent.  Look who is rocking the house! What a way to raise awareness!

More than a bright yellow shirt

This time last year we announced our exciting new Rotary partnership.  This was a big step forward for Wishbone Day to maximise awareness and sustainable growth worldwide. 

One of the many benefits to our partnership with Rotary Club Dee Why Warringah was that it enabled Wishbone Day to include a small profit margin to awareness items purchased in our online Wishbone Day store.

We're delighted to share that through your purchases and the support of Rotary Dee Why Warringah the profits raised from the sale of awareness items from the Wishbone Day store during 2011 have been donated to CLAN to contribute to the launch and some ongoing support of the OI Club in Vietnam. 

For many families living with OI in resource-poor countries there is very little available in the way of access to effective medicine, treatment or support.

74 families gained direct benefit from the OI gathering in Hanoi in November and these families will celebrate their first Wishbone Day with us in 2012!  AWARENESS MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

Wishbone Day is not a fundraising event and our primary focus remains with awareness raising; it is however exciting to know that through the generous support of the Rotary Club of Dee Why Warringah when you purchase a Wishbone Day shirt or other awareness item from our online store you will be benefiting OI communities and awareness worldwide.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Rotary Club of Dee Why Warringah for their ongoing generosity, support and enthusiasm to raise OI awareness and support for families around the world.

If you haven't yet purchased your Wishbone Day shirt for 2012 jump online and check out the many items available.

Welcome to our friends in Vietnam

With the support of CLAN, the National Hospital of Pediatrics (NHP) in Hanoi, Children's Hospital Westmead (CHW in Sydney, Australia), the Rotary Club of Dee Why Warringah, Wishbone Day and other key partners, the launch of Vietnam's Inaugural Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) Club was achieved!

This was a special day with a gathering of 74 families all with children who are living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) in Vietnam. We are excited that Wishbone Day 2012 will be celebrated by our OI Families in Vietnam and that ongoing development for awareness and better outcomes for families.    

Here is a reflection of this amazing day from CLAN.

 

It's almost launch day!

Thanks to our great friends at CLAN, the National Hospital of Pediatrics (NHP) in Hanoi, Children's Hospital Westmead (CHW in Sydney, Australia) and other key partners, we'll see the launch of Vietnam's Inaugural OI Club on 14th November. 

We're super excited about this life changing event! Yes, you heard it right - LIFE CHANGING! About 120 children will immediately benefit from the launch of this OI club that will continue to benefit families for generations to come.    

If you know of families living in this region please be sure to let them know. AWARENESS MAKES A DIFFERENCE!  We'll look forward to bringing you updates soon.  

Thanks to our friend Yenthanh Mac for translating so many OI resources into Vietnamese including our Wishbone Day video!

Adventure in Europe

My adventure in Europe has been fantastic so far! I love it here!!

I attended the OIFE's19th annual meeting and then the really exciting Scientific Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I've met many new friends who are planning Wishbone Day events for 2012.  I really think that Wishbone Day 2012 will be the best we've ever had! Thank you Ute from OIFE for introducing me to so many wonderful friends.

On Thursday I arrived in Sevilla, Spain. I am visiting at the OI-Congress of OIFE's Spanish member organisation. I am so excited to be spending time with my friends from Spain. 'Did you know' that when Wishbone Day first started in 2010, Spain was our first group of friends outside of Australia to translate Wishbone Day into another language other than English?  

This is me with Rafa, who has helped so much with Wishbone Day in Spain! Thank you Rafa!!

Next week I will visit with friends in Germany and then in December, I'm off to Quito, Ecuador!  Maria Barbero and Oliver Semler, a paediatrician from Cologne University Clinic for Children will be my hosts and travel buddies. Together we will attend the second Latin American OI Congress in Quito, Ecuador.

My friends back in Australia have told me that Dr Kate Armstrong from CLAN and A/Prof Craig Munns from the Childrens Hospital at Westmead were awesome at the presentation with Rotary Dee Why Warringah on Tuesday night (11 October).  I am so excited that soon friends in Vietnam will join our global OI family and will be celebrating Wishbone Day in 2012.

If you'd like to be my host where you live, please let me know through my Facebook page! or email Jo and I will do my very best to get there!

Next stop Spain!

I arrived safely in Germany and met up with my travel buddy Ute from OIFE. We travelled together to the OIFE conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia where I met some wonderful new friends including friends all the way from Australia, Helen Keogh and Professor David Silence! Can you see me in the photo below?  I'm sitting with my new friend Terese from Sweden!

After the OIFE conference, I was so excited to be invited to join the 11th International Conference on OI! It is such an exciting time to be meeting so many amazing new friends and learning of all the awesome Wishbone Day ideas being planned for 2012.  Awareness really does make a difference!

Delegates from the 2011 OIFE Conference, Dubrovnik Croatia

I have just heard that there will be an OI conference for the first time in Mexico in January 2012. So, I am going to try and get to that one. Is there anyone who can put me up for a few days in Mexico? I need a travel buddy!  Please leave me a comment or email me on wishy@wishboneday.com if you're keen to be my travel buddy in Mexico!  

I have also heard about the exciting news that our friends in Vietnam will soon be launching their OI Club.  I can't wait to hear all about their first meeting in November!  Maybe I could visit Vietnam sometime soon!!

Ute was worried that I might be getting homesick.  But no, I'm having far too much fun to be homesick! Soon I will say good bye to Croatia and head to Spain for the Congress on OI in Sevilla and will meet more OI family and friends!  

I can't wait!  Spain here I come!!