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The Early Years: 1999 - 2002
1999
21 March : First non-stop round-the-world balloon flight achieved by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3. On their return they fulfilled their promise to go further still, on the earth’s surface, by dedicating their adventure to the children of the world and devoting the financial proceeds and celebrity generated by their success to the fight against forgotten or neglected suffering and diseases.
9 September : Creation of the Winds of Hope Foundation by Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones and Breitling at Château-d’Oex, Switzerland. Marie-Hélène Leclercq, in charge of noma at the WHO, and Edmond Kaiser, founder of the Swiss NGOs Terre des Hommes and Sentinelles, encouraged them to select the fight against this terrible disease as Winds of Hope’s first task.
2000
17 January : First partnership agreements signed between Winds of Hope and Altran Technologies for 3 years.
14 March : First 3 years duration partnership agreements signed between Winds of Hope and de Rham and Victorinox.
21 March : First Winds of Hope grant of 100,000 dollars allocated for the launch of the national anti-noma program in Niger, supported by the WHO. This program had hitherto never been able to start, for lack of finance.
2001
January : Expedition to Niger by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones with President MamadouTandja and the prime minister pledging their support to Winds of Hope.
21 March : Second Winds of Hope grant of 100,000 dollars allocated to the Sentinelles (Switzerland), Hilfsaktion Noma (Germany) and Campaner (Spain) humanitarian associations, all engaged in the fight against noma in 3 different provinces of Niger.
2002
21 March : First International Round Table, organized by Winds of Hope, brought together the main NGOs fighting noma.
18 September: Third Winds of Hope grant of 100,000 dollars allocated to the Swiss humanitarian association Hymne aux Enfants for campaigns of awareness-raising and detection in the field, to help with the construction of a new anti-noma center at Ouahigouya (Burkina Faso) and to launch a project to produce spirulina (in collaboration with the Antenna Technology association) to fight against malnutrition.
Collaboration with WHO : 2003 – 2007
2003
January : Expedition of Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones to Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou and Ouahigouya) to study the Swiss Hymne aux Enfants association’s activities and projects, which were supported by Winds of Hope.
Laying of the foundation stone of the Hymne aux Enfants’ reception and treatment center at Ouahigouya. Evaluation of a possible WHO national noma prevention program similar to that in Niger.
The First Lady of Burkina Faso, Madam Chantal Campaoré, agreed to become President of Honor of the national anti-noma campaign committee.
January : Expedition of Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones to Mali to evaluate the possibility of a WHO national noma prevention program similar to that in Niger, and to harmonize the work of the national coordinators.
June : Launch of Winds of Hope’s partnership with the WHO African Regional Office, worth CHF 3 million (EUR 2 million) over 5 years, in order to launch annual anti-noma programs in Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin, based on the model established in Niger.
20 March : Foundation, at the second Round Table in Geneva and at the instigation of Winds of Hope, of the International NoNoma Federation,.
2004
7th of April : Winds of Hope and Lista signed partnership agreement.
April : Dr Bertrand Piccard opened the International Oral Health Forum organized in Nairobi, Kenya, by the International Dental Federation (FDI), with a speech devoted to the urgency of unifying all the available forces to fight noma.
8-9 September : 2nd Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 3rd Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
2005
7-8 September : 3rd Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 4th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
2006
February : Decision by Winds of Hope and the WHO African Regional Office (WHO/AFRO) to extend their partnership to launch national anti-noma programs in Togo and Senegal, along the same lines as those in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Benin.
8-9 September : 4th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 5th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope, with a decision to organize the first World Noma Day in 2008.
2007
7-8 September : 5th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 6th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
Impact of Noma Day
2008
22 May : Noma Day, first world day dedicated to the fight against noma organised by Winds of Hope and the International NoNoma Federation with the support of the World Health Organization and the International Dentistry Federation (FDI). The gala evening organized on this occasion enable to collect nearly one million swiss francs to support projects of the members of the International NoNoma Federation fighting noma.
5-6 September : 6th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 7th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
16 December : Nomination of a new 6-member Foundation Board.
2009
21-26 February : Evaluation mission to Bamako in Mali by the future Director of the Foundation.
1st June : Nomination of the Executive Director of Winds of Hope.
30-31 October : 7th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 8th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
22 December : Allocation of an annual Winds of Hope grant to the Swiss humanitarian association Sentinelles to support its exemplary work combating noma in Niger and Burkina Faso.
2010
1st October : Winds of Hope and the WHO African Regional Office (WHO/AFRO) sign an agreement to re-launch the regional anti- noma program.
1-2 October : 8th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 9th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
6-17 October : Evaluation mission to Niger and Burkina Faso by the Director of the Foundation.
7-9 December : Winds of Hope Director takes part in the 3-day inter-country Workshop organized by the WHO and the host country in Niamey (Niger), with delegations from 6 countries involved in the re-launch of the national anti-noma programs.
22 December : Allocation of an annual Winds of Hope grant to Persis, the Swiss-Burkinabe humanitarian association, to support its exemplary work combating noma in the north of Burkina Faso.
Begining a new : 2011...
2016
May: Launch of the German version of the Winds of Hope website
June: Launch of the new website of the International NoNoma Federation
23-24 September: 14th General Assembly and 15th Round Table of the International NoNoma Federation, organized, funded and chaired by Winds of Hope
2015
January: Signature of a collaboration agreement between the Winds of Hope and Sir Peter Ustinov Foundations to support campaigns against noma.
May: The Africa region of the WHO, with the support of Switzerland, submitteda request for a resolution to be adopted at the WHO General Assembly in favor of the inclusion of noma in the list of neglected tropical diseases.
25-26 September: 13th General Assembly and 14th Round Table of the International NoNoma Federation organized, funded and chaired by Winds of Hope.
2014
12-16 May: First mission of the Winds of Hope director to Burkina Faso aimed at launching a pilot project for political dialogue on noma under the aegis of the country’s Minister of Health.
26-27 September: 12th General Assembly and 13th Round Table of the International NoNoma Federation organized, funded and chaired by Winds of Hope.
10-14 November: Second mission of the Director, to continue the political dialogue and organize a deliberative forum between public and civil stakeholders in Ouahigouya
2013
28 january : Launch of Winds of Hope’s new website
20-22 june : Bertrand Piccard and the Winds of Hope
Foundation receive the Humanitarian Award of the newly FOR foundation (Foundation for Oral Rehabilitation) created by Nobel Biocare at the opening of their major symposium in New York.
27-28 september : 11th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 12th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
17-19 october : Winds of Hope Director takes part in the 3-day inter-country Workshop organized by the WHO at Dakar (Sénégal) with delegations from 8 countries.
2012
21-23 March : Winds of Hope Director’s coordination mission to the Headquarters of the WHO African Regional Office (WHO/AFRO) at Brazzaville in Congo.
7 March : Human Rights Council adopts a resolution establishing a link between severe malnutrition in a population and childhood diseases, taking noma as the emblematic disease.
27-28 September : 10th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 11th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
11-12 December : Winds of Hope Director takes part in the 2-day inter-country Workshop organized by the WHO at Brazzaville (Congo) with delegations from 6 countries.
2011
7-8 October : 9th Annual General Meeting of the International NoNoma Federation and 10th Round Table, organised, financed and chaired by Winds of Hope.
6-13 November : Evaluation mission to Senegal, Togo and Benin by the Director of the Foundation.
14-16 December : Winds of Hope Director takes part in the 3-day inter-country Workshop organized by the WHO and the host country at Ouidah (Benin) with delegations from 6 countries, which resulted in a common definition of the roles and responsibilities of community health workers in the fight against noma.