The fifth year of the HAE Junior educational camp with the motto „Our super siblings“ took place under the auspices of the First Lady of the Czech Republic, Mrs. Eva Pavlová, from April 12 to 14, 2024 in Prague.
This year, program participants enjoyed traditional experiential and motivational activities – including the popular HAEro Games, as well as expert lectures and joint discussions on topics that significantly affect the lives of HAE patients in the Czech Republic.
HAE juniors joined the international challenge #active4HAE. We prepared sports, educational and creative activities for our juniors aimed at raising HAE awareness and at strengthening sibling relationships of children and youth with HAE. As part of the 5th year of the HAEro Games, all the steps and activities of the HAE juniors were recorded to serve as an education within the #active4HAE challenge, organized by HAE International from 04/01 to 05/31/2024. For their participation, the juniors received well-deserved award cups and diplomas.
The implementation of the project was supported by the following companies: Amberplasma, CSL Behring, KalVista, ČEZ Foundation, Pharming, Pharvaris, Swixx BioPharma, Association for Plasmapheresis, Takeda Czech Republic and other individual donors.
The topic of rare diseases was one of the priorities of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, and we therefore organized two events for wider awareness in October 2022:
– On October 5, 2022, we organized an online workshop with international expert participation entitled „Improving the quality of life of people with rare diseases“, which focused on the issue of the quality of life of patients with rare diseases and at the same time presented projects and best practices from the Czech Republic and abroad.
– During the same month we displayed our art exhibition Stronger than HAE on the premises of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in Prague, as well as at the European expert conference Towards a New European Policy Framework: Building the Future Together For Rare Diseases, organized by the Ministry of Health in Prague, on October 25 and 26, 2022.
During the first half of 2021, a successful campaign took place with the support of the ČEZ Foundation and under the EPP program: Pomáhej Pohybem (Help By Moving), which aimed to secure funding for first aid kits for the HAE Junior patient community. The thermosets contained high-quality thermal packs with the necessary equipment for transportation and application of injection treatment in emergency situations, such as HAE attacks. The project quickly gained the necessary number of points, as well as considerable public attention, helping to raise awareness of the rare disease HAE.
In 2021, we completed the Inclusive Scholarship project: Skills for the future, which began in June 2020 with the support of the AVAST Foundation. The project output was a total of 15 scholarships for pediatric patients with HAE from all over the Czech Republic, which enabled their participation in language and IT courses and summer camps.
The project supported their competencies in education and building interpersonal relationships. Communication and sharing of experiences within the community of patient families were also strengthened.