Create possibilities with hidden differences Creative ideas to build support, understanding, change and compassion to provide hope instead of fear for persons living with the challenges of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
Get the Fetal Alcohol Awareness Day Celebration started.
If you are like most other FASD Awareness Day activists,
you don't have much time or energy.
But have no fear - we have done the groundwork for you.
Here is ONE THING you can do now. It's fun and really not that hard.
Give it a try. Nothing to lose, right?
If you think you are busy, look at how busy this Mom is. Three kids, two with special needs.
If she can do it, you can do it too, can't you?
Here are three easy steps to get started:
(1) Pick a Partner!
You don't have to do this alone.
Grab your phone and call someone in your area.
In the US? Look here: USA Directory
Click on your state. Connect with someone.
Choose a person on Facebook you'd like to partner with
Join the FASDay Mailing List Serve on Yahoo Groups and connect with other support list serves (go to http://groups.yahoo.com and search for FASD and/or Fetal Alcohol)
If you can't afford a phone call outside your area, then email somebody.
You don't have to do this alone.
There's someone else out there who is willing to help.
Ask and you just might receive!
Let today be a blessing of more friendship connections!
Follow us through the next 60 days and plan your local or personal project to build awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder - Each One Can Reach One!
(From the Oxford English Dictionary) Concordance: 1. The fact of agreeing or being concordant; agreement, harmony...4. An agreeable or satisfactory blending of musical sounds or notes; harmony.)On Sept.9, 1999, bells around the world marked the "magic minute" at 9:09 a.m., and we named this ringing of bells, "The FAS Bell Concordance."
It was so successful that other organizations have picked up this term and copied it!
We came up with the bell idea as there is a purity about bells that reminds us of the innocence of children. As well, bells are historically associated with warnings, alarms, marking important moments, and simply pealing for the joy of connecting with the community. FASDay is all of these things.
On FASDay, 2000, even more bells and other percussion instruments were played - ranging from the first mission bell in New Zealand to the historic 56 bell carillon in Cape Town, South Africa, to tiny bells rung by school children, and wind chimes and rain sticks played by native Canadians.
Last year, on September 9, we want the noisiest, most joyful Bell Concordance ever -- and you can organize one, even if right now you are the only person in your community who knows what FASD is!
You might even be able to organize the ringing of a local carillon -- the largest musical instrument in existence. Even in a large, noisy city, carillon music can be heard for several blocks. There are about 600 carillons throughout the world, and we would like many more to ring during the Minute of Reflection this year.
To find out if there is a carillon near you, go to http://www.gcna.org/, the most complete and accurate listings of carillons in North America, and also check out www.cs.yale.edu/~douglas-craig/bells and http://soda.csua.berkeley.edu/~maestro/stat.htm.
Gerald Martindale, carillonneur at Toronto's Metropolitan United Church (email:geraldm@planeteer.com), can help put you in touch with a local carillonneur (carillon player), if there is one. Mr. Martindale has created a concert of international lullabies, representing some of the countries participating in FASDay, and would be pleased to share his arrangements with other international carillonneurs.
The FAS Bell Concordance is quite simple, and you can do most of the work on your phone. Is there a tower with a hand-rung bell in your community? This could be an older church, a city or county hall, state or provincial building, or part of a college or university campus. Unfortunately many church bells are now rung by computer, making it difficult to ring the bells off-schedule, and this may be the case in your community.
Find out who is in charge of getting that bell rung, and ask that person to have the bell rung for one minute at 9:09 a.m. on September 9.
You can download the FASDay information from this site and present it to this person. If this building is a church, you may wish to speak briefly to the congregation on one of the Sundays before FASDay, and explain why the bell will be ringing at 9:09 this year.
You may want to have a small program in the church or near the bell tower, for 20 minutes to a half-hour before 9:09 a.m. Notify your child's school, friends of FASD and related organizations that you think would be interested, e.g., your local ARC (U.S.), Association for Community Living (Canada), Exchange Club, homelessness and anti-poverty coalitions, John Howard and Elizabeth Fry Societies, and every single friend or relative you can convince to come.
Ring Bells at 9:09 am on 09.09!
Search out bells in your community
Church Bells
School Bells
High School Orchestra
Cow Bells
Government Bells
Business Door Bells
Bells on Retail Store PA systems
Make connections today to schedule a special bell ringing ceremony of ringing out the warnings of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Hundreds of crazy but wonderful people in communities in every time zone volunteer their time and energy to organize FASDAY activities, where parents and professionals alike join forces in this phenomenal grassroots movement that now involves thousands of participants.
Is the world listening?
We think so!
No bells in your community?
Use other musical instruments of your choice: drums, cymbals, whatever.
One FASDay supporter shook her grandmother's old school bell,
A group in a small northern Canadian community approached their local fire department!
The FAS Community Resource Center that provides the majority of the information for FASDAY activists has 50,000 people each month visit its web pages that contain a wealth of information on research, prevention, and intervention of fetal alcohol issues. Parents, professionals, teachers and students alike visit the popular web site to educate themselves and to share information with others by downloading the hundreds of articles and handouts available there.
Those ringing bells, or whatever else you choose, will be a powerful auditory reminder that we are all connected to the planet, and each other, and make a statement that FASD can be beaten.
Follow us through the next 60 days and plan your local or personal project to build awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder - Each One Can Reach One!
International Fetal Alcohol Awareness Event September 9, 2012 Join the Virtual Million Minds March to Build Better Baby Brains Want to get on the FASDAY Train? Want to bring others on board?
Subscribe to the FASDay mail list.
INTERNATIONAL FAS DAY -
IN ONE MAGIC MINUTE, WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD:
9 /9 9:09 a.m.In late February, 1999, a small group of burned-out parents, most of whom had never met face-to-face, began to change the world. Since then, hundreds of communities around the world have joined us to honour International FAS Awareness Day (FASDay).
We are parents of children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or ARND (Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder), the most common and damaging birth defect in the world, and the one which could be totally prevented. The full range of disorders caused by maternal drinking in pregnancy are now generally known as FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder), and it affects about 1 in 100 people in North America, about 4 times in incidence of AIDS/HIV. (There are about 3 million people with FASD in the U.S., and 300,000 in Canada, the majority undiagnosed.)
In South Africa, Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union, the rate of undiagnosed FAS is even higher.
Our original volunteers were mainly adoptive and foster parents, plus a small but committed number of mothers in recovery, who have been working hard to inform and support other women with substance abuse problems. All of us lived daily with children whose prenatal damage caused mental retardation or learning disabilities, plus severe acting-out behaviour that disrupted our lives and their classrooms, and often physical problems requiring much medical attention.
Click map to visit FASD Center of Excellence to learn
more about what each country accomplished
For most of us, life revolved around our children's crises: most mothers had been forced to abandon any thought of full-time career. Frustrated by the lack of public awareness of FAS by both public and professionals, we had communicated on line internationally for more than two years.
And on that February day, Bonnie Buxton, and Brian Philcox working in collaboration with Teresa Kellerman, began to wonder: “What if, on the ninth minute of the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month of the year one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, we asked the world to remember that during the nine months of pregnancy, a woman should not drink alcohol? And, what if we also asked the world to remember those millions of people who will struggle all of their lives, because of prenatal alcohol? “At this magic minute in history, could we begin to change the world?” And we began to work together, helped only by the Internet. Our group grew to include more than 70 volunteer coordinators in eight countries. Our northernmost volunteers were in Alaska, Yukon and the new Canadian territory, Nunavut, our southernmost in New Zealand.
Follow us through the next 60 days and plan your local or personal project to build awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder - Each One Can Reach One!
FASworld is an international alliance of parents and professionals who do not want to see any more children, teenagers and adults struggle with birth defects caused when their mothers drank alcohol in pregnancy. Co-founded by volunteers in Toronto, Canada, and Tucson, Arizona, it has resulted in the creation of the Canadian organization, FASworld Canada, which continues to work with the FAS Community Resource Center
Meet families and professionals working together to build awareness of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
Individuals struggling with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders may be diagnosed with:
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS),
Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND) -- formerly known as Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) --
Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD),
Alcohol-Related Birth Injury (ARBI) or
Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS).
(In New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world, these conditions are spelled," etc.). Syndrome,? Alcohol Foetal DIV <>
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term describing the range of effects that can occur in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects may include physical, mental, behavioral and/or learning disabilities with possible lifelong implications. The term FASD is not intended for use as a clinical diagnosis.
Psychologists and psychiatrists often assess individuals with FAS disorders as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder or Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) -- but are often unaware that the real problem is permanent neurological damage caused by prenatal alcohol.
People with prenatal alcohol exposure have a high risk of mental disabilities, learning disabilities, early school drop-out, juvenile delinquency, trouble with the law, alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, incarceration, and mental illness. As many as half of all adults with some form of FASD have depression and a significant percentage of those have attempted suicide. With early diagnosis and treatment, many of these "secondary disabilities" could be prevented.
For a comprehensive review of information about FASD,
Follow us through the next 60 days and plan your local or personal project to build awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder - Each One Can Reach One!
FAS Day is the short name for International Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Awareness Day, which was observed for the first time on September 9, 1999, with a "Minute of Reflection" at 9:09 a.m.
It came about because a number of people on the online support group "FASlink" were feeling frustrated about the lack of awareness by professionals and the general public about FAS.
We were trying to figure out how to make the world more aware that woman should not drink in pregnancy - and also inform the world that millions of people throughout the world are suffering from brain damage caused by alcohol before they were born.
Twenty volunteers from around the world began working together to build awareness, and by September 9 we had 80 volunteer coordinators.
On September 9, 1999, events were held in communities across Canada and the U.S., and in South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, and Sweden. We also had individual volunteers in Australia and Italy. All of this was accomplished with volunteers and no financial resources.
Our international butterflies really did cause a storm.
The event generated enormous local media and on September 10, 1999, we decided to do it again in 2000 - only bigger and better! And then again the next year and the next and each year it has grown little by little.
Happy Independence Day to a courageous and wonderful daughter may the dreams of your heart and mind be realized.
Liz wrote the poem below in 2008 and in 2012 she truly is independent and come to terms with life with the challenges of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Today is not independence day, but someday it may be true.
The only person I want to be committed, God, is to you.
Alcohol stole my being, before I was even born
Alcohol took my heart and mind, before the early morn
Alcohol stole my first mother, and my father at her side
Alcohol took my young adult self, on a roller coaster ride
I hate what it has taken
Even though it is so true
But we stand united together to fight and not to lose
Get the Fetal Alcohol Awareness Day Celebration started.
People with prenatal alcohol exposure have a high risk of mental disabilities, learning disabilities, early school drop-out, juvenile delinquency, trouble with the law, alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, incarceration, and mental illness. As many as half of all adults with some form of FASD have depression and a significant percentage of those have attempted suicide. With early diagnosis and treatment, many of these "secondary disabilities" could be prevented.
