Charities united for 2020 International Face Equality Week
The right of being treated equally and without discrimination is what all people desire. The way someone looks should not determine how they are treated. Member organizations of Face Equality International highlight the issues and prejudices people with facial differences experience, including health inequalities, online abuse, and hate crime. During the 2020 International Face Equality Week, 35 global charities from Taiwan to South Africa through North and Latin America, including Chattanooga-based FACES: The National Craniofacial Association, have joined forces to continue campaigning for a better, fairer world for people with facial differences.
Facial disfigurement, whether congenital or related to trauma or an acquired condition, is a neglected global human rights issue. Those with facial differences may experience low self-esteem in the global ‘look-perfect’ culture, isolation, bullying, staring and questioning in public places, low expectations in school, problems getting work, discrimination in the workplace, online abuse and stereotyping in the media. In many countries, disfigurement goes hand in hand with poverty, exploitation, prejudice, and exclusion.
This year’s campaign helps reshape the narrative around what it is really like to live with a facial difference right now, by telling real-life stories and challenging misconceptions.
People from across the United States have joined FACES in a Selfie Challenge.
The social media reach of FACES tripled, increasing awareness of face equality.
Those with craniofacial anomalies have a voice and a platform to share their stories and photos, which helps normalize facial differences.
A strong sense of unity has formed among the craniofacial community- both those people with facial differences and the organizations across the world that support them.
FACES: The National Craniofacial Association, was established in 1969 and makes facial surgeries possible for kids here in Chattanooga and across the nation by financially assisting patients and their families with travel costs for specialist care and surgeries. More information about FACES can be found online at www.faces-cranio.org or by calling 423-266-1632.
