A call to all to commemorate International Vitiligo Day
Everyone is encouraged to wear purple to commemorate the day and create awareness about the condition.
A local organisation has put out a call to action to bring awareness to vitiligo. The organisation’s founder, Amelda du Toit, has personal experience with the condition because her daughter was diagnosed with vitiligo.
“This was a God-given journey for me. When my daughter was diagnosed, I experienced so much as I watched her come to terms with the condition,” she said.
She added that she established Vitiligo Assist because of insufficient educational material about the skin condition.
According to the organisation’s website, vitiligo is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks melanocytes, cells in the skin and eyes that contain and produce melanin. The melanocytes are responsible for pigmentation.
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The disease causes pigment-producing cells to die or stop functioning, resulting in the person losing skin colour in patches. These skin patches can be centralised (limited to part of the body ) or generalised (spread all over it).
Amelda hopes that with the organisation, she can inform and help those affected by the condition directly and indirectly.
“I want to start support groups for those affected to help them deal with the other issues around vitiligo, including fear, stigma and the bullying they face, especially at a young age,” she said.
To do this, Amelda is endeavouring to raise funds.
“Even though vitiligo has no cure, treatment is still needed to manage it, and all those products are expensive.
“I want to raise funds to help those who can’t afford these products.
“I also want to get specialists involved to help those diagnosed and their families in any way I can,” she said.
She added that vitiligo is a condition most medical aids don’t recognise as medical.
“Medical aid schemes don’t cover the costs of treatments because they consider this condition to be cosmetic rather than medical, which is far from the truth,” said Amelda.
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She said the organisation needed the community’s support because it affected everyone in some way or another.
“People with vitiligo tend to withdraw from society. I speak from experience with my daughter,” she said.
Celebrated every year on June 25, Amelda encouraged people to wear purple for awareness and to teach others about vitiligo.
For more information or to donate to the cause, contact Amelda on 084 407 9904.
