Dear friends,
Aniridia Europe’s General Assembly, held online on 13th July 2022, has elected a new Board of Directors and the other organs of the federation. You can meet the new Board on the trustees’ page, and read the minutes of the assembly on our website.
The new Board has received by the General Assembly the mandate to continue along the main strategic lines already established, with all the necessary updates required by the current situation: networking, empowerment and support; advocacy and visibility; improvement of care; promotion of research; social inclusion.
The importance of strengthening the aniridia network, both among patient associations and with the scientists (clinicians and researchers), had clearly emerged during the Community Meeting in Alicante (Spain), held on the 3rd of June 2022 in the framework of the 6th European Aniridia Conference, whose report you can find on our website, as well as all the presentations by the national associations.
And the conference itself was a perfect and concrete example of how these principles can be put into practice. In case you have missed it, you can listen to all the recordings of the conference. I take the opportunity to thank the Asociación Española de Aniridia, for the dedication, great work and expertise they have demonstrated in the organization of the conference.
The new Board has already held its first meeting: all the directors, elected for the first time or re-elected after the previous mandate, are ready to bring their enthusiasm and commitment towards our common objectives. But the federation can also count on the support and expertise of the national associations and groups that are members and of a great number of volunteers, whose names you find on the dedicated page, that are the real strength of Aniridia Europe, as I pointed out in Alicante.
And we do not forget the support and dedication demonstrated by the doctors and researchers that are keeping aniridia at the centre of their scientific interests: they are too many to be listed here, but let me at least mention our Scientific Committee and all the scientists belonging to the Aniridia-Net COST Action.
The next months and years will be full of commitments and activities in many areas, all dedicated to the effort of improving the quality of life of aniridia patients and families as much as possible. The challenges, we know, are connected to the scarcity of human and financial resources and to the criticalities of the international situation. Nevertheless, I am sure we will do our best.
Therefore, let’s walk together with confidence towards our common goals.
My warmest regards
Barbara Poli