My First Week at Changing Faces

Week 1: Arrival at Changing Faces

Hi all, my name is Isabel and I’m working together with the lovely Ameesha for the charity Changing Faces! I’m from Switzerland and I’m working there for 10 weeks. I write my own blog in German for the organisation in Switzerland called “Hautstigma”. Ameesha invited me to be a guest blogger at her amazing blog and now I’m translating some of my blog posts into English for you guys. J

I was very excited to be able to call London my new home for the next 2.5 months. I didn’t choose this city by chance, I chose this destination because it is the main location of the organisation Changing Faces.

With the help of the head of the organisation at Hautstigma in Switzerland, the idea came up that I could make an internship with Changing Faces in order to find out more about them and to gain a lot of experience, also in the interest of “Hautstigma”. I took the challenge to explain in a weekly blog what Changing Faces exactly is and what this organisation does and is aiming for.

Changing Faces was founded exactly 25 years ago by James Partridge (CEO). He has published his own story, his helpful advice and his goals in a self-written book. The organisation on its own has basically two objectives: "Changing Lives" and "Changing Minds". The former is achieved through the support of people with special characteristics (e.g. burns, birthmarks, diseases, etc.) and to campaign for their public rights. The organisation offers a starting point for people of all ages and their relatives in the form of psychological support, as well as camouflage consultations (you can understand Camouflage as a special makeup to cover e.g. scars). Under the keyword "Changing Minds", they try to change the view of each individual towards people with visible differences and to prevent stigmatisation. That’s why their slogan is: ‘Changing Faces - changing the way you face disfigurement’.

This year Changing Faces already celebrates its 25th anniversary, due to that the UK’s first Face Equality Day will be celebrated on 26th May 2017. On this special day, various actions will take place around the theme of #FaceEquality. Various organisations and schools will be involved as well as the two other office locations of Changing Faces in Scotland and Yorkshire & The Humber – it can only be a total success if we reach as many people as possible.

Like Ameesha, I am doing my internship here in London in the Department of Communication and Advocacy, where I can help to organise various activities for the #FaceEquality Day. For example, a survey of more than 800 people with a disfigurement from all over the UK was carried out, which we had to evaluate into a report. Finally, it’s also about involving as many people as possible and sending a lot of informative mailings to all possible support groups.

Isabel x

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Isabel Sahli is a blogger for Swiss organisation 'Hautstigma' (Eng - 'Skin Stigma') and fellow intern at Changing Faces. She would love to study medicine in the future. *All images are her own.
Instagram: @_isabeel

German Version: http://www.hautstigma.ch/isabels_blog_changingfaces_1

This post was written by a guest contributor you can see her contact information above, if you would like to write for Bold In Origin please email me at: XX