Lycee Guebre-Mariam organizes Telethon to support research for genetic diseases

Lycee Guebre-Mariam organized a half a day Telethon and an evening of talent show on Saturday, December 9, 2017 inside the school’s compound.
The school organized the Telethon with the objective of collecting donations that go to scientific research against genetic diseases; more specifically Myopathy, a disease that affects the muscles.
“With the association of high school students and the ADFE, we decided to commit ourselves to this public health cause. We chose this because actions are clearly framed by an association (AFM) which has an irreproachable reputation in terms of monitoring its funds. Genetic diseases are also too often forgotten by research budgets that do not find them “lucrative” enough in terms of return on investment; citizen engagement for this cause is therefore fully justified,” stated Jean-Christophe Torres, Principal of the school.
He further stated that participation of Lycee’s students to help organize the event has been very good. “The students were informed by us. They did a lot, gave very good and many ideas that we had not thought of at the beginning. When given the freedom and opportunity to take initiative, my experience shows me that they are giving you back a hundred times. This is what happened for this action,” Torres underlined.
The event was not organized with a quantitative goal in terms of collecting funds. “We count on a strong mobilization to accompany us and help the research, we do our utmost to communicate on the event. The rest does not depend on us,” the Principal said before the event kicked off.
The school hopes to make the Telethon which was held for the first time this year, an annual event. Both the Telethon and the talent show were open to the public.