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Brain Fair key element of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day

The FASD Key Worker and the Comox Valley FASD Community Network will observe Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day on Sept. 18.

The FASD Key Worker and the Comox Valley FASD Community Network will observe Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day on Sept. 18.

The groups will organize a Community Brain Fair at Simms Park from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It hopes to bring together community organizations that provide support, recreation, education and services to individuals and families affected by FASD as well as promote healthy living and healthy brain development to the

community as a whole.

"We recognize the need for a family friendly resource fair where parents/care givers have easy access to information about local organizations and services and also offer entertainment for the children. We would like to have a balance of information booths and interactive activities," the groups say.

If your business or organization would like to hold demonstrations of the types of activities you offer, it would be a great  opportunity for you to promote the services/products/resources you provide. Reading, art, music, dance, yoga, helmet safety and healthy eating are all important factors of promoting healthy living and brain

development. Organizers want a broad range of services represented to illustrate the different ways to support healthy living and development.

FASD is an umbrella term describing the range of harms caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. These may include physical, mental, behavioural, and/or learning disabilities. The effects are life-long. There is great variability in the characteristics of those affected depending on such factors as the amount and timing of the exposure of alcohol. Effects are often invisible, which leave individuals affected more vulnerable and misunderstood.

While there are no precise statistics on the rates of FASD in Canada, it is estimated that nine in every 1,000 babies are born with FASD yearly and many more are living with it that go

undiagnosed. FASD affects individuals from every community, every culture, every race and every socio-economic status. There is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

If you are interested in partnering in this initiative, please tell organizers what role you are willing to play.

Contact Allison Abraham at 250-338-7793, ext. 224 or allison@wachiay.com.

— Wachiay Friendship Centre