Members of the nongovernmental organization “Debra Moldova”, which promotes the interests of persons suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, said they became victims of discrimination. A part of the pictures of the exhibition staged by the association in the central park of Chisinau disappeared. Twenty-six of them were found destroyed the next day.

The association’s head Eugen Brad, in a news conference at IPN, said that 48 pictures of people suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, which is also called the butterfly disease, were exhibited in the central park on September 20. The exhibit was mounted on the occasion of the second anniversary of the organization’s foundation with the aim of collecting funds at a charity concert given in the Public Garden “Stephan the Great”. In the morning of September 21, a part of the photos disappeared.

Members of the association informed the police. A woman said she saw how the pictures were thrown in garbage bins in the park. But no photos were found in the bins. Several hours later, the police identified 26 of the 48 pictures, but didn’t say where. They were all destroyed.

Eugen Brad believes it is an attempt to intimidate him. The persons from behind these acts humiliated the association’s members, who tried to show their sufferings by pictures.

The organization’s deputy head Mariana Turcan said the pictures were produced during one month and a half and cost 5,000 lei. After the theft, the photos were reprinted with the help of kindhearted people who offered money. The exhibition will be staged in all the parks of Chisinau until November 10. There will be also mounted a fair of objects made by persons suffering from the butterfly disease.

According to the Ministry of Health, 54 persons have been diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa in Moldova.