Summary of events of the National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW) -

Croatia 2014 & 2015 Croatian Infertility Awareness Week, 16 – 22 March 2014

Roda – Roditelji u Akciji (STORK / Parents in Action) had their first Infertility Awareness Campaign in 2014 under the patronage of the Ministry of Health:

1. Launching of the Facebook page – Roda Infertilityhttps://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/

2. After Roda’s invitation and open call to publish their infertility stories, Roda published on the Facebook page dozens of private videos of patients talking about their infertility path: https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/611705008903494/https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/612141922193136/https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/624684280938900/https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/623997251007603/ and a lot of private stories published on the Facebook page of Roda Infertility, patients talking about their infertility path.

3. Launching of the online brochure (>50 pages) https://issuu.com/udrugaroda/docs/neplodnost_2014

4. Several TV shows, Roda and patients talking about infertility, how stigmatizing it is, etc. https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/606336942773634/https://www.facebook.com/rodaneplodnost/videos/631277630279565/

5. Meeting in the Croatian Parliament: FE Chair Clare Lewis-Jones and the President of the Croatian Parliamentary Committee for Gender Eqality.

6. Fertility Europe Meeting (with two presentations from Croatian ART experts – one IVF physician and one embryologist).

7. Round Table Discussion TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MAR IN EUROPE (two Croatian and one Slovenian MAR expert, one embryologist, one representative from the Croatian Ministry of Health, representatives from Polish, UK and Croatian patients infertility associations).

8. During the whole week there was in all trams in Zagreb the display saying “INFERTILITY AWARENSS WEEK” and “www.roda.hr”

9. For two weeks we had wonderful posters in over 200 buses in Zagreb saying – ONE IN SIX COUPLES CANNOT CONCEIVE WITHOUT MEDICAL HELP

10.A two weeks exhibition in the Croatian Parliament with postcards Special Families Campaign, and „One in six couples cannot conceive without medical help”.

11. On the last day of our first Infertility Awareness Week we had our FERTILITY WALK - which we in Croatia took over from our friends Portugal (thank you!) and organized for the first time in 2012. On our FERTILITY WALK 2014 there were over 300 people and a lot of media (radio, newspapers, TV). On Roda’s info booth we handed out postcards INFERTILITY HURTS (thank you SOS Infertilitatea from Romanai), Special Families Campaign postcards, T-shirts TOGETHER FOR FERTILITY/FERTILITY WALK, other leaflets and documents, gave a lot of interviews:

Costs: 980 EUR – mostly for printing and handouts (posters, t-shirts, badges) and a lot of volunteer work and good will

Croatian Infertility Awareness Week, 19 – 25 April 2015

The second Infertiliy Awareness Week in Croatia was held under the patronage of the President of Croatia and the Croatrian Ministry of Health

1. Posters YES, YES, YES, YES YES, NO and one is six couples in over 200 buses in Zagreb during two weeks

2. Zagreb airport – main hall - 8 electronic displays of one of Romanian graphic campaign potos - INFERTILITY HURTS, every two minutes the campaign was online – for one 10 sec.

3. Two weeks mini exhibition in the Croatian Parliament – altogether 6 posters a) all four Romanian “Infertility Hurts” posters b) Special Families Campaign poster

4. Ten different TV and radio shows where Roda was guest and discussed infertility issues, treatments, the good law we now have, etc. together with other relevant experts. A couple of newspapers covering and announcing the Infertility Awareness Week 2015.

5. Introduction of the psychological support group Roda offered for affected people facing infertility, going through treatments. Over 10 groups were held in autumn 2015 by an educated psychiatrist.

6. Distribution of 2000 hardcopy broschures INFERTILITY in all state MAR clinics in Croatia. One or twoo Roda representatives went to every clinic and handed over a couple of hundred broschures INFERTILITY to every state MAR clinic – which were later distributed to patients facing infertility.

7. Our fourth FERTILITY WALK held in Zagreb on Saturday, April 25th 2015. On Roda’s info booth we handed out postcards INFERTILITY HURTS, Special Families Campaign postcards, T-shirts TOGETHER FOR FERTILITY/FERTILITY WALK, other leaflets and documents, gave a lot of interviews again. The whole event was covered very good by media.

Costs: 870 EUR – mostly for printing and handouts (posters, t-shirts, badges) and a lot of volunteer work and good will. Some things were free of charge, you just have to ask for it.