Karen Gaffney, In­ter­na­tion­al Down Syn­drome Self Ad­vo­cate (DSFN) and open wa­ter swim­mer, is ex­pect­ed to be the spe­cial guest speak­er at the sec­ond an­nu­al World Down Syn­drome Day Con­fer­ence sched­uled for March 21 to 22 at Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, and at Mag­dale­na Grand Re­sort and Spa, To­ba­go.

DSFN is al­so ho­n­oured to have as its keynote speak­er Julie Har­mon, a board mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Down Syn­drome Con­gress (USA). She is al­so the moth­er of two boys with Down syn­drome. In keep­ing with the 2013 World Down Syn­drome Day theme "Right to Work," fore­most em­pha­sis will al­so be placed on in­clu­sion.

A me­dia re­lease stat­ed: "The DSFN marks the eighth an­niver­sary of World Down Syn­drome Day (DSFN), recog­nised by the in­ter­na­tion­al Down Syn­drome com­mu­ni­ty and the sec­ond an­niver­sary since sanc­tioned by Unit­ed Na­tions.

"The con­fer­ence is open to peo­ple of all abil­i­ties, their fam­i­lies, care­givers, ed­u­ca­tors and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als. The date is sig­nif­i­cant, as it rep­re­sents the three copies of chro­mo­some 21 which is unique to per­sons with Down syn­drome."

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Karen Gaffney is an Amer­i­can who is the pres­i­dent of the Karen Gaffney Foun­da­tion, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion head­quar­tered in Port­land, Ore­gon, which "is ded­i­cat­ed to cham­pi­oning the jour­ney to full in­clu­sion for peo­ple with Down syn­drome and oth­er dis­abil­i­ties." She her­self has Down Syn­drome, and in 2001 she com­plet­ed a re­lay swim of the Eng­lish Chan­nel, the first per­son with Down Syn­drome ever to do so.

In 2007 she be­came the first per­son with Down Syn­drome to swim across Lake Tahoe. In 2009 she swam across Boston Har­bor, to cel­e­brate Down Syn­drome Month in Mass­a­chu­setts. She has al­so earned two gold medals from the Spe­cial Olympics, and com­plet­ed 16 swims across San Fran­cis­co Bay, in­clud­ing the Es­cape from Al­ca­traz triathlon.

Wikipedia