March 21, 2024 will hold the 13th annual World Down Syndrome Day Conference, hosted at the United Nations headquarters. World Down Syndrome Day has been observed across the nation since 2012, with many people showing their support through wearing brightly colored socks. Around the world, different buildings light up in yellow and blue colors symbolizing down syndrome awareness including, The Empire State Building, Norwich Castle, and Tower 42.
The United Nations website published, “In order to raise public awareness of Down syndrome, the General Assembly invites all Member States, relevant organizations of the United Nations system and other international organizations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, to observe World Down Syndrome Day in an appropriate manner.”
Down syndrome occurs when an individual is born with extra chromosome 21, and occurs between 1 in every 1,000 live births worldwide. March 21 was the chosen date because it is the 21st day in the third month, which was chosen to symbolize the uniqueness of trisomy. Down syndrome is a human condition that occurs in every part of the world that can result in different effects in learning styles, physical characteristics, and health. The point of World Down Syndrome Awareness is to end the stereotypes and false information surrounding the condition.
Lots of Socks campaign is designed to get people talking about Down Syndrome Awareness year round. The campaign calls for people to wear mitchmatch colorful socks on March 21, and the campaign sells their own socks on their website. Lots of Socks has a competition each year to design a sock that will be sold in their sock shop. This year, the design was won by David, who drew gears.
“Many times people may believe that because we have an extra chromosome, because we are different gears, we cannot fit together and make a big change, but this is not true.” David said.
The Lots of Socks shop sells children eco-friendly socks and adult eco-friendly socks with David’s gear design to raise money. Other ways to raise awareness about Down syndrome is creating posters and celebrating March 21.
For the past few years, the main concern of Down Syndrome Awareness Day is ending the stereotypes that make everyone with Down syndrome feel more comfortable. Many of the stereotypes make it so that people with Down syndrome feel like they are treated like babies and less than human. A lot of victims of this discrimination have openly shared their story on the World Down Syndrome Day website. One person who shared his story from Mexico was Carlos.
“People think that Down syndrome is a sickness. It is not! Down syndrome is a condition. We are like any other person. I want the world to see us for who we really are.” Carlos said.
World Down Syndrome Day is a time to come together and end the discrimination that makes everyone feel equal. People with Down syndrome are denied a quality education, good health care, a chance to earn money at a job, and their opinions are not considered. It is important to fight for their inclusion and individual rights.
Once the international petition to create World Down Syndrome Day was made it received more than 12,000 signatures within two weeks.
Dec. 9, 2011 the UN officially declared March 21 as World Down Syndrome Day.
Each year on WDSD a theme is chosen to spread awareness to the different types of discrimination they face.
Lots of Socks Shop link
https://lotsofsocks.worlddownsyndromeday.org/en-us/collections/lotsofsocks-socks
