And thank you to our friends in Brazil...

In my last blog, I wrote about Debbie's trip to the ABRAF Conference in Brazil.  We've since heard more about her welcome and the work of our South American PH partners. And, we were surprised - and thrilled - when she returned with an award for PHA from the Brazilian PH Association.  Our sincere thanks.  We look forward to our continuing progress together.

Our partners in Brazil...

PHA's Director of Volunteer Services, Debbie Castro, spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

She had been invited to speak at the third annual conference of the Associação Brasileira de Amigos e Familiares de Portadores de Hipertensão Arterial Pulmonar (ABRAF), one of 50 PH associations PHA works with worldwide. 

Here is Debbies first report about her experience:

There are about 55 people here at the Third annual meeting of ABRAF.

 For a patient to get on treatment in most states of Brazil, they must take legal action and sue the state to pay for treatment. 25 of 27 states don't recognize PH in their treatment protocols.

Paula Menzes lost her mom to PH and founded the organization 4 years ago. Debbie reported that Paula's father, Paulo, was an excellent MC for the event. They both speak English, Spanish and Portuguese.  That's Debbie on the left, Paulo in the center and Paula oon the right.

We value this and all our international partnerships in the fight against PH...and we're looking forward to hearing more when Debbie gets back!