Captive in my body

Children’s Joy Association represents people with dystonia in Romania and they organised a national painting exhibition with the title: Captive in my body 

The event was dedicated to people with dystonia and it started at the end of February. The last day of February is dedicated to being the International Day of Rare Diseases, and this day is a good occasion to draw attention to the diagnosis of dystonia. At this event, artists from Romania were invited to display their paintings, working on the vicious postures of patients with dystonia, known as the “disease that the body no longer listens to you”. 

We also wanted to know how this issue is seen from the outside. We chose the artistic perspective because it gives us the opportunity to see things deeper, from an angle of beauty. 

Dystonia is a particularly serious neurological disorder that causes the affected people in vicious positions, involuntary movements, and even leading to disability. We hope this theme was a challenge for artists and the public, being an unusual event in Romania. This event is also aimed at raising funds from selling the 40 paintings that the  artists have donated . Our Association wishes to organize a recovery workshop for patients with dystonia in Romania on 8 September 2018. The funds raised will be used for this purpose . The audience has the opportunity to watch this exhibition for 6 months at the Therezia Bastion in Timisoara, National Museum of Banat. This event attempts to change the opinions and behaviors of Romanians, but also to remove their prejudices against various people with specific problems.  

The Romanian dystonia association aims to highlight the inner strength of the affected people by continuing to fight for this difficult diagnosis in a society where outer beauty prevails.  Even though we are different, we can not be marginalized by society.                              

Children’s Joy Association, has its headquarters in Timisoara, where it organizes regular meetings with adult patients, as well as volunteers. It can be creative activities dedicated to children, creative workshops, patient information events for medical conferences dedicated to them.

Children’s Joy Association is visible at national level as a member of the National Rare Diseases Association (ANBR) and at the European level by being a member of Dystonia Europe, here represented by Mrs. Catalina Crainic, President of the Association. “We trust that together we can succeed. The abilities that we have are more than the “-dis” prefix of (ability). Society needs strong people, and we are some of them. We have courage, faith and hope! “ 

We invite everybody to visit our exhibition, in and artistically spirit, those who, without fear, say YES to the differences between us and NO to the misconceptions! More information is available at www.distonianational.ro  and www.rarediseaseday.org/country/ro/romania 

Written by:
Catalina Cranic
President
Children’s Joy Association