Face Equality International
IFEW

About FEI

Face Equality International is an alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), charities and support groups which are working at national, regional or international levels to promote the campaign for ‘face equality’.

FEI’s Vision, Mission and Values

Our vision is for the global facial difference community to live freely, without indignity or discrimination. 

In order to achieve our vision, our mission is to position face equality as a social justice movement.  

Together we can create a world where anyone with a disfigurement is free to be unapologetically themselves. In order to celebrate what makes us ‘different’, first we must recognise that it is society that must change, not us. It is the limiting perceptions placed on faces and bodies that do not conform to the ‘norm’ that we must change.

Phyllida Swift, CEO of FEI

As a growing Alliance of international NGOs, our collective actions will focus on:  

FIND OUR STRATEGIC FOCUS HERE. 

Language                                                                             

Facial difference or disfigurement (FD) describes a facially-diverse or non-normative appearance of the neck and above. This indicates conditions or marks that an individual is born with, as well as changes of facial appearance that are acquired either permanently or temporarily.  

Medical and legal settings have historically used the term disfigurement. Facial difference or FD can be more universal and inclusive terms to strive towards in the future. Self-identification and freedom of choice are always paramount. 

Values 

COMMUNITY

As an Alliance, we build solidarity through working collectively towards a unified goal.

BELONGING

We embrace and create space for facial differences of any kind, be they acquired, from birth, or temporary.

INTERSECTIONALITY

We respect the importance of intersectionality, recognising the experience of all marginalised communities whose social identities may overlap and lead to heightened prejudice. We will align with other equality and human rights issues wherever possible. 

NORMALISATION

We normalise difference and reduce shame with meaningful, open conversations. 

LIVED EXPERIENCE

We’re a community-first organisation, centring lived experience of facial difference always, at the heart of what we do.  

We need humanity to acknowledge the facial difference community as an entity that has a strong identity and a standalone voice. To know that we exist. Respect our fortitude, our insight, our indomitable spirit.

Adele Lie, Member of FEI’s Lived Experience Working Group

Our remit

Face Equality International’s remit is to advocate for people who have any condition which can affect their face – such as those which affect faces only like cleft lips and palates or facial paralysis and those that affect faces and bodies like burns, vitiligo and alopecia.

When campaigning for protection and recognition, FEI will make common cause with charities which campaign for people with body disfigurements and differences.

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. 

 

Photograph courtesy of Changing Faces
Model with Moebius Syndrome opens Fashion Week show

“I feel like this is just the beginning of representation in all of the media, and to showcase how beautiful differences really are.”

Read More

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    The mission of Face Equality International (FEI) is 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.

    About FEI

    Model with Moebius Syndrome opens Fashion Week show

    “I feel like this is just the beginning of representation in all of the media, and to showcase how beautiful differences really are.”

    Read More

    The Harmful Trope of Facial Differences in Film Villains

    The Harmful Trope of Facial Differences in Film VillainsBy Tess Buckley “The constant portrayal of individuals with facial differences as villainous or frightening reinforces harmful stereotypes.“ “In the world of cinema, a familiar face often greets us when the villain is revealed – a face marked by scars, burns, or other visible differences. This long […]

    Read More

    Why are people with Facial Differences being kicked out of restaurants?

    We deeply were saddened and frustrated this week to read a story in the news of a member of the facial difference community in Britain being asked to leave a London restaurant by staff who claimed that the customer’s appearance was upsetting other diners.

    Read More
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