After six weeks of tennis training, Global’s Dare to Play Tennis campers finished their season with a half-day clinic taught by eight-time Grand Slam winner & tennis icon, Jimmy Connors, and Wilander on Wheels’ Cameron Lickle. Jimmy was a natural with the campers and by the end of the clinic everyone’s game was elevated. Global’s campers played in front of 200 fans, parents and lots of media in attendance. Later they took photos, got autographs and watched Jimmy and Cameron play two exhibition matches with some of Colorado’s best players!

Global Down Syndrome Foundation. Yup. That’s actually the name of our non-profit. You can say protecting people with Down syndrome is not only our mission but in our DNA. So when the issue of a 10-year old girl with Down syndrome separated from her mother in Texas came up, we naturally took notice. And, when a guest commentator on Fox News dissed even the idea of a 10-year old girl with Down syndrome as being lefty-bait for sympathy with a “womp womp” you bet we took notice.

Here’s the thing—whether you believe these separations are a matter of national security or a matter of inhumane leverage for a wall, there is no doubt the children are innocent and what they’re being put through is horrible. And the children with Down syndrome aren’t acting, they actually have Down syndrome and therefore special needs.

Unfortunately, we cannot physically protect this 10-year old with Down syndrome in Texas, but we can virtually protect her and others by demanding that she not be ridiculed or disrespected. We can allow her story to be told in a complete and civil manner.

At Global we know people with Down syndrome have idiosyncratic speech that in many cases only family members or teachers understand. So, even a fluent Spanish speaker would have difficulty in communicating with this 10-year old girl. We know that expressive language is compromised and is often 2-3x worse than receptive language, and that people with the condition depend heavily on routine to function. It is safe to say that, in all likelihood, this 10-year old girl with Down syndrome is suffering mental trauma and we strongly support her immediate reunification with her father—who is apparently a US citizen—and we are offering assistance from Down syndrome experts to the extent her detention is prolonged. Please help us to advocate- will YOU stand up? #GlobalHelpHerNow.

Michelle Sie Whitten
President & CEO
Global Down Syndrome Foundation

After years of advocacy, the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, its research affiliate, the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, and its nationwide network of dedicated members and self-advocates are celebrating House Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cole’s (R-OK) announcement of a historic and significant 65% increase of Down syndrome research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from $35 million in FY2017 to $58 million in FY2018.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is one of the many bipartisan leaders who is celebrating this historic moment. The Quincy Jones Award Recipient has a daughter with Down syndrome and has been a champion in helping Global move forward our advocacy work in Washington, D.C.

“I applaud the Global Down Syndrome Foundation for their unwavering and dedicated advocacy to increase NIH research funding benefitting people with Down syndrome.  Global makes a strong and irrefutable moral case to give people with Down syndrome their fair share of funding.  They also are providing tangible, excellent science that if funded properly by the NIH, will not only improve the lives of those with the condition but millions of others who suffer from diseases people with Down syndrome are predisposed to, or protected from.  My daughter Katherine and 400,000 other Americans with Down syndrome deserve to know their government is investing their future,” Congresswoman Holmes said.

Read more about this historical increase.