EUFAMI President Miia Männikkö marks 25th anniversary celebration
EUFAMI President Miia Männikkö speech (EUFAMI’s 25th anniversary celebration)
PsycArt Gallery, 30 November 2017
“It is with great pleasure that I welcome you as EUFAMI’s President at this special moment in our history.
This year marks 25 years since EUFAMI was founded in 1992 with the aim of bringing together mental health and family carer associations from across Europe.
Today, we have 37 members in 23 countries.
Many representatives of those associations are here tonight, so thank you for your support.
We also have artists from 17 countries, not only from Europe but also from Israel and Alaska.
Some are here in person, such as Paolo Merloni, Caroline Rouques, the Artame gallery (who travelled from France), Anthony Fisher (from the UK), the Levy family (from Israel), Tamar Levi (from Alaska) and several artists from Belgium, including Sven (unik-id) who will be performing tonight.
Thank you for your generous donations and sharing your stories with us.
We’d also like to give special thanks to EUFAMI’s 91-year-old founding mother Gusta Frooninckx who unfortunately cannot be with us tonight.
She is a tireless campaigner for mental health and family carers… as well as an accomplished painter.
Her work – Wisteria in Yellow – is here tonight. Thank you Gusta for your passion and drive. Without you none of this would be possible.
The theme of tonight’s event is ‘Home’ which is very symbolic for us. Over the past 25 years we have been campaigning for the process of deinstitutionalisation, which basically means getting people with mental ill health out of anonymous and dispiriting care homes and back into community-based care close to friends and family.
We have succeeded in that mission with deinstitutionalisation becoming the thrust of conversation across Europe, but more needs to be done to ensure that family carers get the support they need with greater work-life balance, better mobile services and financial assistance. Let’s work together to make that a reality…
Finally, I would like to remind everyone that all the works here have been kindly donated by the artists to EUFAMI and are for sale.
The prices range from as little as 50 euros so please enquire with staff to see if you can bring an artwork to the office or home with you.
Thank you for supporting our cause and celebrating our 25th anniversary with us.”
PLEASE SEE ALL ARTWORKS HERE
