Yesterday, Tuesday 18, throughout the day speakers, guests, members of associations, and members of the great family Factor-h began to arrive to Barranquilla for our 2022 HD Latin American Conference… including President and Vice President, doctors Ignacio Muñoz San Juan and Roger Cachope
The Escenarium Events Group, created a WhatsApp’s group called “Prod General Huntington” to coordinate the arrivals of guests and the assembly works of stages, stands and so on. As the day progressed, messages poured in, and it was easy to guess a mixture of professionalism, great efforts and enthusiasm. The arrivals were coordinated, airport pick-ups where happening constantly, and solutions found for unforeseen events, such as the cancellation of the flight from Bogotá to Barranquilla, in which Dra. Claudia Perandones, Factor-h co-founder, along with Dr. Ignacio Muñoz San Juan (Nacho), was traveling for the event.
In the early hours of the morning, “Nacho” sent the group the first image of the exhibition “Huntington is not my name” of the photographer Vladimir Marcano that will welcome the participants. The strength and power of Marcano’s images -size 2 meters high by 1 meter wide-, seemed to claim that each person affected by Huntington’s disease in one way or another, is much more than the disease itself. The show led some of the operators who carried out the assembly of the show, to be deeply moved. (We reserve the images for a later “entrance” to maintain the expectation and impact for those arriving at the Convention Center today.)
At the same time, the WhatsApp group “Prod General Huntington” was fuming: A meeting with the Venezuelan Vladimir Marcano, meeting at last, with members of a group of collaborators of Factor-H in Colombia, including Leyla and Zuleima, with their enthusiasm always contagious … A long-awaited meeting even before the arrival of Venezuelan’s coordinator, Marina González Kaufman. Greetings, hugs, and kisses were happening everywhere.
It is at that moment when “Nacho” begins to give the first interviews to the Colombian media, presenting the content of the Congress. “It’s exciting because there are people who arrive, like the group from Peru, many components travel for the first time outside the country. The most important thing,” he points out, “is this sense of community, of not being alone, that all of us who make up this community of committed and wonderful people feel.”
There is someone who contacts the organization because they have relatives affected by the disease, but they have not been able to register… another plane is arriving a bit late… Everything is frantic but is the enormous enthusiasm that predominates.
And we have not started yet!!!! This morning three parallel tables, before the inauguration at 5 pm will be taking place. One of them is on the validation of treatments with specificity for Huntington’s disease by the Medical Consortium. Another table will hold a Factor-h meeting with the different associations of Latin America, to exchange experiences and to seek ways to coordinate with others and help each other. The third table will consist of workshops on how to care, how to feed, how to comfort…
Bellow, some samples of what was going on before everthing started.
English 
Spanish 
Portuguese