Grassroots movement aims to change the world
Date: Sept. 9, 1999
Time: 9:54 am
Today is International FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) Day, which was created to encourage people to take a minute -- at 9:09 am local time -- to think of the children born every day whose abilities have been impaired by alcohol before they are born.
The day, which actually began yesterday in New Zealand, hopes to raise awareness of what organizers call the "invisible plague" of FAS and fetal alcohol effects. The date and time were chosen due to the significance of the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month of the year 1999, and the nine months of pregnancy.
The idea for an international day grew out of the struggles of the parents who must deal with the effects of the exposure, specifically with the difficulties in diagnosing the disorder.
Journalist Bonnie Buxton and her husband Brian Philcox searched for years to find an explanation for their adopted daughter's antisocial, and often violent, behaviour. They eventually found Faslink , the international on-line support group operated by the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, which gives parents the chance to meet and learn from others facing similar situations. Most importantly, the group has a list of medical experts in the field that many parents just couldn't find on their own.
"The medical profession, by and large, is not well aware of this, and many physicians dismiss it as an insignificant problem outside of native populations," Buxton told eCMAJ Today.
She hopes the international day can bring the issue into the spotlight and maybe even help parents struggling because they do not know what is wrong with their child. Buxton also has a Web site to provide further information on FAS.
"You really have to be in the middle of this, know the signs and have the alarm bells go off," said Buxton. "Unfortunately the bells aren't going of with all doctors yet."
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