This past spring the LapCI board went through quite a few changes, as three members exited and three new ones joined the board. On top of that, we now have a new chairman as well! In this article Ali Ghiasi, our new chairman, tells us a little bit about himself, his family, his time at LapCI and shares his thoughts on the future of the organization.

Hello all!

I’m Ali Ghiasi, the new board chairman. I am a father of two wonderful children, 6 year-old Säba who is the driving force of our family and has the “ears with options” and 2 year-old Soroush who is a constant source of hilarity and the reason behind 90% of our insurance claims! My wife, Leyla, and I are both engineers and we live in Tampere. As a family we are quite tight, and we love to socialize. My family and I have been with LapCI for over 6 years now. We joined the association even before our daughter went under the CI surgery because we needed solace and support; and those we got and more! So, for the past 5 years I have been involved in board’s activities one way or other to be able to do for others what was done for us.  

Behind the scenes, LapCI is working hard to secure the rights of CI recipient children by constantly communicating with relevant stakeholders as well as battling misconceptions about the CI recipients rehabilitation, social development and required support; at the same time we organize many programs, hopefully more in person now that Covid-19 occurrence is subsiding, for CI recipient children and their families around the county. These programs are great places to meet others in similar situations, share the latest information on the technology, rehabilitation and social care and truly feel amongst peers while having fun and learning something. We actively work to remove the obstacles and enhance our offering to encourage families to contact us and participate in the events. In the last 2 years we have launched the Cisumusa which proved to be immensely popular. It will be our priority to continue that program and improve it based on the feedback we have received. 

 In the next couple of years, LapCI, as well as all other NGOs, will face changes and in some cases difficulties with our funding structure and source as the system by which all these associations are funded, is undergoing massive changes. As an association that has taken pride in having been directing all its funding towards its target group with considerable impact, we are quite confidant that we can get through this with our offering uncompromised. On the society level we are facing resurgence of doubt towards the CI’s and their rehabilitation regimen. In LapCI we have the best interest of the children and their families at heart with no judgment and bias. We believe that informed dialogue is the way forward and we have perused such line and intend to do so in the future. 

At the end I would like to reiterate that LapCI is an association by families for the families. We do our best to lower the threshold for engaging the families. We truly hope that our members and members-to-be take advantage of that and join LapCI’s understanding, welcoming and sincere community in all its activities. 

Sincerely, 
Ali Ghiasi 
Chairman of the LapCI board

This article has been published also in Finnish here.