Helping people overcome their coeliac challenges is the theme of this year’s Coeliac Awareness Week, which takes place from 12 – 18 June.

The theme - “My Coeliac Challenge – Take Charge, Get Diagnosed and Find Help” puts the spotlight on the challenges people living with coeliac disease face, and how these can be overcome. Whether you’re a parent struggling to prepare coeliac safe food for your child at home, looking for ways to reduce your food bill with the increased cost of gluten-free foods, or wanting to have the confidence to eat out safely, the coeliac community faces a wide range of challenges on a daily basis.

The theme also aims to raise awareness for people living with the condition that are yet to be diagnosed. Their challenge may be recognising the symptoms, or overcoming the fear of being tested. Diagnosis and adhering to a gluten-free diet is life-changing, so it is important to educate others about identifying their potential risk, the symptoms to look out for and to provide them with advice and support around testing.
How to get involved in Coeliac Awareness Week

We have produced a series of tiles that can be used by our members on social media. They are a great way to raise awareness about coeliac disease and for you to share your own coeliac challenge with your friends, family, and followers.
Keen to share your own #MyCoeliacChallenge on Facebook? Follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Email admin@coeliac.org.nz to request the Facebook tiles to be sent to you
2. Select the tile (or tiles!) you want to share
3. Save as an image on your phone
4. Post on Instagram or Facebook during Coeliac Awareness Week with some words about your greatest coeliac challenge and how you overcome this to live well
5.Tag @coeliacnewzealand and use the hashtags #CoeliacNZ #MyCoeliacChallenge

Keen to share your own #CoeliacChallenge on Instagram? Follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Email admin@coeliac.org.nz to request the Instagram tiles to be sent to you
2. Select the tile (or tiles!) you want to share
3. Save as an image on your phone
4. Post on Instagram or Facebook during Coeliac Awareness Week with some words about your greatest coeliac challenge and how you overcome this to live well
5.Tag @coeliacnewzealand and use the hashtags #CoeliacNZ #MyCoeliacChallenge

We look forward to seeing all of your posts during Coeliac Awareness Week to help raise awareness for this disease and inspire others to overcome the many challenges people living with coeliac disease face.

For Schools:
Coeliac New Zealand has developed a fun and interactive resource kit for schools to help encourage learning and awareness around coeliac disease for children in years 7 to 10.
Each class will be given the challenge: If your coeliac or gluten-sensitive friend is coming for a sleepover what will you feed them?
After some key learnings, the children can be creative and design a coeliac-safe, yummy, and fun meal plan for their proposed sleepover.
The resource kit will include:
• A lesson plan
• An information poster
• Loop card game
• Recipe ideas
• CAW poster

Prizes: We would love to see some of these ideas, creations, and meals – so we have a prize pack to give away – one for a class member, and one for the school with the most menu entries. Further details will be available once you register your school.
Registering your school is easy: just email the team at healthpromotion@coeliac.org.nz and tell us how many classes will need a kit.

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