Born from the community in 2011, World Vitiligo Day (WVD) has grown into the world’s largest independent healthcare movement dedicated to a single condition.
Each year, a rotating global headquarters leads the charge — aligning patients, clinicians, and ministries around one shared agenda.
June 25 is the ignition point. But the movement doesn’t live in one room or one livestream; it breathes through local chapters on the ground. From street parades to clinical summits, events spread into the surrounding weekends — turning a single date into a massive, accessible wave of action that ripples across time zones and communities.
Vitiligo affects nearly 100 million people worldwide — including around 15 million in India. But numbers don’t capture what matters most: confidence, identity, and daily life.
In 2026, World Vitiligo Day comes full circle, returning to Chandigarh after 12 years.
Under the theme “From Stigma to Strength,” we’re bringing the global vitiligo community back to its spiritual birthplace — to share knowledge, provide training and mental support, and chart a path toward better care.
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Led by Keith Loo (Skinopathy), the first non-physician president, WVD 2025 centered the conversation on AI, medtech, and research. Part of Toronto Tech Week, the campaign went viral on TikTok and reached 60 million unique accounts in a single day, with 120 million screens over the full week.
2024
🇨🇴 Cali, Colombia
Theme: United by the Skin
Hosted by Dr. Claudia Arenas (Honorary President) and Dr. Adriana Cruz (General Secretary), the event brought clinicians, patients, and advocates together around one core idea: unity beats stigma. The program blended clinical updates with hands-on microsurgery training led by Prof. Rafael Falabella—100+ physicians trained live—plus practical care and a creative contest spanning art, poetry, and AI-driven work.
2023
🇰🇿 Almaty, Kazakhstan
Theme: Vitiligo: Looking into the Future
Led by Honorary President Dr. Aliya Kassymkhanova and Vice-President Dr. Anar Abdrakhmanov, the event brought the global HQ to Central Asia with a forward-looking focus on awareness, education, and emerging treatments. Spanning six cities—a first for World Vitiligo Day—over three days it was backed by the Ministry of Health, including nationwide cinema ads. A standout: a live two-hour microsurgery demonstration in vitiligo.
2022
🇲🇽 Mexico City, Mexico
Theme: Learning To Live With Vitiligo
Led by Honorary President Prof. Jorge Ocampo Candiani, the event launched at the Senate of Mexico with a live Parliament TV broadcast—a rare moment when vitiligo reached national-level visibility in real time. The three-day event concluded with a photographic exhibition, “Vitiligo: A Colorful Skin” led by Dr. Karen Férez. The Vitiligo Patient Journey Map debuted to immediate success.
2021
🇮🇩 Jakarta, Indonesia
Theme: Embracing Life With Vitiligo
Led by Honorary Captain Dr. Srie Prihianti Gondokaryono, WVD 2021 adapted to the reality of COVID-19. Large in-person gatherings weren’t feasible, so the movement went fully digital instead — with online events hosted worldwide, including a 24-hour virtual room on Clubhouse that kept the conversation going across time zones. It also launched a first-of-its-kind TikTok contest with cash prizes, bringing a new wave of creators into the WVD story.
2020
🇷🇸 Belgrade, Serbia
Theme: SELF: Awareness, Love, Respect, Care
Led by Honorary President Prof. Ivana Binić and Serbian Vitiligo Support Group leader Slobodanka Mijatović, WVD 2020 went fully virtual as COVID-19 shut down in-person gatherings. The weeklong program scaled fast: one webinar in China drew 5.5 million viewers — an absolute record.
2019
🇻🇳 Hanoi, Vietnam
Theme: The Quality of Life of Vitiligo Patients
Hosted by campaign Honorary President Prof. Nguyen Van Thuong at the National Dermatological University Hospital with Vietnamese government backing, WVD 2019 focused squarely on what living with vitiligo actually feels like. A panel of international experts covered novel herbal treatments, surgical therapies, and viral triggers.
2018
🇺🇸 Boston, USA
Theme: Children, Research, and Hope for the Future
Co-hosted by Dr. John Harris (UMass Vitiligo Clinic) and Valarie Molyneaux (VITFriends), WVD-2018 welcomed 315 participants from seven countries — the largest vitiligo gathering at the time. The three-day program opened with a live multi-country videoconference, followed by lab tours, a kids’ track with Pen Pal Patch, and research updates on the first immune-targeted clinical trial in decades.
2017
🇧🇷 São Paulo, Brazil
Theme: Step Up for Vitiligo: A Call for Truth, Hope and Change
Led by Honorary President Prof. Paulo Cunha — known for bringing dermatology care to remote Amazon communities — Brazil hosted the global HQ while Detroit anchored U.S. celebrations with Lee Thomas and the Southeast Michigan Vitiligo Support Group. That year also marked a policy milestone: World Vitiligo Day was included in the UN Calendar of Disability Events.
2016
🇨🇿 Prague, Czech Republic
Honorary President Prof. Jana Hercogová hosted the Prague HQ in a city renowned for dermatological expertise and architectural beauty. Meanwhile, Valarie Molyneaux and VITFriends led a massive Capitol Hill rally in Washington, D.C. with over 300 participants—activists, researchers, healthcare workers, and politicians—featuring 20 speakers and drawing hundreds of spectators.
2015
🇨🇳 Shenyang, China
Led by Honorary President Prof. Xing-Hua Gao, WVD 2014 mobilized 12 major hospitals and grassroots volunteers who collected 20,000 petition signatures in a single day — pushing the UN recognition petition past 500,000. Around the world, the campaign kept growing: Brazil ran street rallies with 50+ medical students, Italy organized free skin check-ups across 15 dermatology departments, and India’s IADVL aligned National Vitiligo Day with June 25.
2014
🇮🇳 Chandigarh, India
Theme: Holistic Management For Vitiligo
Led by Honorary President Dr. Davinder Parsad at PGIMER, WVD in Chandigarh marked a turning point. In just three years, the campaign had grown from grassroots to global. At PGIMER, 225 vitiligo patients were examined in a single morning, followed by events that drew 800+ doctors — an all-time record. 40 rickshaws carried World Vitiligo Day logos, and street performers turned awareness into art.
2013
🇺🇸 Detroit, USA
Led by Honorary President Dr. Henry Lim, WVD brought the movement to Detroit. WVD made its first-ever television appearance, with vitiligo advocate and broadcaster Lee Thomas hosting Yan Valle and Dr. Masha Henderson on Fox 2’s morning show. The day continued with an open roundtable at Henry Ford Hospital with local experts and the Southeast Michigan Vitiligo Support Group. Artist Stephanie Corne created custom portraits celebrating volunteer stories.
2012
🇮🇹 Rome, Italy
The inaugural World Vitiligo Day launched on June 23, 2012, at the University of Guglielmo Marconi. Organized by Prof. Torello Lotti and Yan Valle (Vitiligo Research Foundation), the modest press conference faced a citywide transport strike but still gathered reporters, researchers, and activists in the Aula Magna. A small but passionate group ignited what would become a global movement, setting the stage for WVD’s journey across continents in the years ahead.
2011
🇳🇬 Lagos, Nigeria Pre-WVD event Theme: Purple Fun Day
Organized by Ogo Maduewesi (Founder, Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation) at Silverbird Galleria in Victoria Island on June 18, 2011, the first Vitiligo Awareness Day planted the seed for what would become World Vitiligo Day. By early 2012, a partnership between VITSAF and the Vitiligo Research Foundation transformed this Lagos initiative into a global campaign.
Spiritual birthplace 🇮🇳
Even before World Vitiligo Day became a formal global campaign in 2011, India was already running a national “Vitiligo Day” program since 2009. Under Prof. Davinder Parsad’s coordination with Indian professional societies and international partners, it formally aligned to June 25 in 2015 — helping set the tempo the global movement still follows.
In Chandigarh-2014, PGIMER delivered a record-setting HQ: 800+ doctors onsite, 225 patient consultations in a single morning, plus a citywide street program with performers and 40 WVD-branded rickshaws.
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This historic meeting is organized under the auspices of the IADVL, International Society of Dermatology, PGIMER Department of Dermatology and VR Foundation, with invaluable support from the national vitiligo support network.
Our Collaborators are the heartbeat of the movement—a mix of patient leaders, research teams, and tech innovators working together to take big ideas and turn them into real support for the vitiligo community.