A world free of barriers, where people with facial differences are thriving and proud to be themselves.
Working together to ensure the global facial difference community is seen, protected and respected.
We celebrate difference
We value every face, without judgement
We are stronger together
Face equality is a human right
Support for the facial difference community goes beyond the medical
We are creative, passionate and peaceful in our approach
Only as a powerful, unified alliance will our voices be loud enough to end the injustice experienced by the facial difference community.
| The What | The Why |
|---|---|
| Empower and equip an alliance of changemakers | The barriers facing people with facial differences are too big to tackle alone. |
| Raise the visibility of the facial difference community | Living in an appearance – obsessed world is tough, and misrepresentation often leads to mistreatment. |
| Educate to target the systemic disadvantage affecting our worldwide community | From school, to work to walking down the street: the world we live in has not been built with the interests of the facial difference community in mind. |
| Collect evidence to drive policy change | It’s estimated that 1 in 111 people have a disfigurement and yet this community has remained largely invisible in global human rights efforts. |
| Grow a sustainable organisation | Changing the tide on centuries of marginalisation is going to take time. |
We build capacity – connecting and equipping those providing vital services, so no one works in isolation.
Advocacy can be lonely and overwhelming. That’s why we reduce silos by sharing resources, co-producing campaigns and addressing the gaps in how to better serve our communities. This then helps us to influence societal change as a truly representative body.
FEI fundraises to deliver our programmes, to change the way the world sees facial difference.
Alliance members pay an annual fee to FEI that’s relative to their size. This isn’t simply a transaction in return for our supportive services. Members joint-fund the global campaign, because they care about every single person with a facial difference, worldwide, beyond their immediate community. All of whom deserve rights, equity, and inclusion. We cannot allow face equality to remain in the shadows any longer.
Language is constantly evolving and often deeply personal. As an organisation we tend to use facial difference or disfigurement which activists have coined as FD. This describes an appearance-affecting mark, scar or condition that an individual is born with or acquires, either permanently or temporarily.
Self-identification is hugely important on an individual level, whilst also encouraging our communities to use the words that are enshrined in law to exercise any rights or protections that may be reliant on using certain words.
Many organisations and individuals that we make common cause with identify with ‘visible difference’ as a term that encompasses facial and bodily differences. The ‘Face Equality Movement’ is not exclusive to those with lived experience, it is a mechanism for anyone to make change.
Find our strategic focus in PDF here.
Here’s how we’re making an impact together:
How we started
FEI was formed in 2018 by our late founder, Dr James Partridge OBE. The Alliance was formed to mobilise the many groups and organisations, big and small, national and international, which support and represent people with facial differences and disfigurements and thereby to create the critical mass and solidarity needed to gain global attention for the campaign for face equality.
We are proud to say that since our inception, we have achieved many of our original objectives, and we’re thrilled to be in a position to continue to build upon them, and evolve as a growing movement. Find our original strategy here.
