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During a beautiful week in July, a camp, dedicated to the families raising children and teenagers affected by Alopecia (autoimmune disorder in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body) was held in a small village in Lithuania. With the Kazickas Family Foundation's help, it was the second year in a row such camp took place.
The goal of the camp was to offer children and youth the opportunity to experience freedom while interacting. Such freedom is not always an option at schools and their daily lives. Children, together with their families, spent a week in a secluded beautiful area, where they could run, play and interact without a worry about a hat or a wig. Such worry-free environment is extremely important, because children get a chance to be who they are without a worry about someone's look on his or her face or uneducated comments. They don't exist here. Such children's worry-free attitude is crucial for the parents as well. It gives hope that their children can be happy the way they are. Not the hair becomes the most important factor, but their goals, dreams, talents, strengths. They take this experience and apply it in their daily lives throughout the entire year. They start absorbing less and less negative reaction from the environment and become more free and confident in who they are.
Even though the camp was meant for families touched by Alopecia, there were others that came to support them, to help with the integration of the children into society, to spread awareness about the condition.
Since 2010 National Alopecia Association works with a goal to spread the awareness about alopecia and promote tolerance and understanding.
Photo: Courtesy of NAA