ICNA needs your support

Dear colleagues,

We are writing today to ask for your support for the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA) and its activities.  http://www.icnapedia.org

The work that ICNA performs is entirely financed from funds raised.  Membership is now free and has grown considerably to over 2,000 members since we implemented this policy in 2012.  

Strategic aims of the ICNA

• Helping and supporting colleagues from resource poor regions to elevate standards in the clinical practice of child neurology and neurodisability internationally. 
  • ICNA has ambitious plans to advance this cause through increased educational programs in resource poor countries.
• The International Child Neurology biennial congresses (ICNC) are on track. These academic meetings are greatly valued for their state-of-the-art scientific content and interactive educational workshops and have been highly successful over the years.  Following a landmark clinical, scientific and educational ICNA congress in 2016 in Amsterdam, we are looking forward to our next ICNA Congress, Nov. 15-18^th, 2018 in enchanting Mumbai, India. Our congress theme will focus on “Protecting the developing brain and preventing disability”. Please mark your calenders for this event as we will shortly be sending out a call for the submission of competitive symposia.
• An open access free electronic journal (JICNA) has been recently launched (editor Charles Newton) and there is continued expansion of online resources on our website ICNApedia including online lectures, guidelines, WHO alerts, clinical videos, neuroimages, journal watch, fellowship and research grant opportunities including our global burden of disease seed grant fellowships, etc.

The educational programs of ICNA in 2016 were enormously successful with 18 meetings across the globe, which is the highest annual number to date.  The countries included Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil (4 sites), Colombia, Egypt, India (3 sites), Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Myanmar, Russia, Tanzania, and  Zimbabwe, illustrating the aim of ICNA to try and ensure global reach.

The feedback from participants has been highly positive as were the clinical and scientific interactions.  ICNA board members  as well as general ICNA members  donated both their time and their expertise as well as in the large part supporting their own travel to meeting sites, which underlines the true beneficence of our members and our mission. 

We would like to specifically acknowledge the efforts of our 2016 meeting organizers namely Banu Anlar (Turkey), Ana Carolina Coan (Brazil), Paolo Curatolo (Italy), Marilisa Guerreiro (Brazil), Ahmed Raouf Ibrahim (Egypt), Sakkubai Naidu (USA), Pratibha Singhi (India), Ingrid Tein (Canada), Sylvia Tenembaum (Argentina), Vanessa Van der Linden (Brazil), and Jo Wilmshurst (South Africa).

A public health emergency has been recognized by the WHO and PAHO arising from the mosquito-borne ZIKA virus which is leading to an endemic disease of profound congenital microcephaly with severe developmental disability, seizures, blindness, spasticity, and deafness as well as acquired transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barre syndrome in the Southern hemisphere and moving toward the Northern hemisphere.  ICNA designed and delivered a series of ZIKV educational symposia to heighten awareness of the clinical recognition, diagnosis, management and prevention of ZIKV associated morbidity and mortality.

These workshops held in Brazil (Recife, Campinas, Sao Paolo, Iguazus), Colombia (Bogota) and the Netherlands (ICNC2016, Amsterdam) were highly successful in disseminating critical up-to-date information and WHO guidelines internationally, as well as in high endemic regions to over 2,700 health practictioners many of whom were/are directly in the front-line. We are extremely grateful for the hardworking and steadfast efforts of our ICNA-ZIKV working group members (Vanessa Van der Linden, Marilisa Guerreiro, Ana Carolina Coan, Helen Cross (UK), Jo Wilmshurst, Charles Newton (Kenya, UK), Ingrid Tein).

One of the new aspects of the ICNA educational mission has been to partner in several instances with the International Committee of the Child Neurology Society (CNS) in the USA.  This committee is headed by Jorge Vidaurre, a Spanish-speaking epileptologist from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.  We have obtained a small budget from the CNS for certain joint ventures.  Since 2015, we have had joint meetings with the CNS in Bolivia, Honduras, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe and have endeavoured to have Spanish-speaking faculty whenever appropriate.

ICNA has also aligned its goals in reducing the global burden of neurologic diseases associated with intellectual disability, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury with the World Federation of Neurology and as a member of the World Brain Alliance. Through the WBA, we are advocating for recognition of Brain Non-Communicable Diseases by the WHO and for support from governmental, social and public sectors to prevent, reduce and/or modify the exponentially increasing human and financial cost of all neurodegenerative disorders.

As we are about to embark into a new year of promises and aspirations to benefit and maximize the potential of children in all corners of the world, we are reaching out for your valued support. Please consider making a donation to ICNA.  No amount is too small!  As an international group, we expect donations to be highly variable in the amount. It is perfectly OK to donate US $25 (or more) and be listed as a donor on the ICNA website.  This support will fund more critically needed educational meetings in resource-poor regions. Every dollar goes directly toward education and makes a synapse in our network between resource-rich and resource-poor regions. We truly need this support!

Please visit the ICNA webportal at http://www.icnapedia.org to make your donation.  If possible, we prefer not to have paper checks because of excessive bank charges. We will be happy to provide you with a letter of thanks acknowledging your donation.

We sincerely thank you and extend to you and your family our best wishes for the holiday season and for a very joyful, peaceful and prosperous 2017.