Dear EOA Members, dear friends,
It has been too long since I wrote a President’s Message for our website. As I look out the window I see the beautiful summer weather, but alas, I need to stay inside and do some work!
Time flies ….. and in about four months, on 3rd of October, we’ll celebrate World Ostomy Day (WOD) 2015. This is a special day for all of us as it draws attention to the needs of ostomy patients in your own country and worldwide also.
I’m sure at this moment a lot of the EOA Associations are very busy preparing events, meetings and other activities for WOD 2015. For your information, the WOD logo is available for the exclusive use of all EOA and IOA member associations and can be downloaded from the EOA website.
“Many Stories, One Voice” is the theme for this worldwide event on 3rd October 2015. The first contribution for our website concerning WOD came from the President of the Ostomy Association Bosnia and Hercegovina, Dragan Trivun. It is a very special story about a little girl named Nadja Turudija, one of the youngest members of the Association. It’s about the efforts of the inhabitants of the city of Prijedor to help this little girl. This story of Nadja touched me very much. Please have a look on the special WOD page on our website.
News from the EOA associations.
Sweden.
I received wonderful news from Sweden. The ‘Cookbook for People with Other Exits’ has won the Bib Gourmand 2015 price for the best cookbook in the world. Congratulations for this great project.
Moldova.
I’m very pleased to inform you about a new member association in Moldova. At this moment there are about 1,300 members since the association was established and it is still growing. We wish the President Valentina Sandu and the Board good luck with all the efforts for the ostomates in Moldova. Other good news about Moldova is that NORILCO from Norway has promised to help to start up the Moldovian Association.
Ukraine.
The Ukraine Ostomy Association has elected a new President. His name is Andriy Prus. We wish Andriy Prus and his Board good luck for the future.
Africa.
At the beginning of March I received a phone call from Ghana to advise of the very sudden death of Roslyn Anderson, the chairwoman of the Ghana Ostomy Support Group. This is a great loss for her family and also for the Association. As you’ll remember, the Director of the Dutch Ostomy Association (the twinning partner of Ghana) and I visited Roslyn last year and we met the members of the Ostomy Support Group. During our visit we were amazed by the great job and enthusiasm Roslyn had for the ostomates in Ghana. I hope…. NO, I’m sure ….. that the board members of the Ostomy Support Group will continue the good work Roslyn started.
Anniversaries.
12 September
ILCO AUSTRIA will celebrate the 40 year anniversary in Vienna, Austria.
1 October
ISILCO, Iceland will celebrate the birth 35 year ago in Reykjavik, Iceland
3 October
ILCO SWEDEN will take the opportunity to celebrate their 50th Anniversary and WOD on 3 October 2015 in Malmö.
News from the EOA-EC
This year our meeting will take place 10 and 11 October at our Contact Office in Bonn, Germany. If you have an important item for the agenda, please let me know.
Dear friends, “Many Stories, One Voice.” Is the slogan for WOD 2015. It would be nice to hear from all of you about your activities, meetings and events that you are planning for WOD 2015. Please send a short report, preferably in MS WORD (.doc) or plain text (.txt) of your WOD 2015 activities to our EOA webmaster (webmaster@ostomyeurope.org). Your contribution will be published on the special WOD page on our website. We’re looking forward, with interest, to receiving your reports.
If there are any changes in your association’s contact details, please send the new information to Maria Hass, Contact Office Deutsche ILCO (info@ilco.de)
I wish you all good luck with your efforts for the ostomates in your country and especially for World Ostomy Day 2015.
Best wishes,
Ria Smeijers
President EOA
The Netherlands, June 2015