This year, the city of Dubrovnik joined the celebration of International Gastroschisis Awareness Day, which was held in Croatia for the third time in a row. This Saturday the small Onofrio Fountain was illuminated with green lights, and in addition to Dubrovnik, 32 other cities provided support.

International Gastroschisis Day is celebrated on July 30 because on that day in 2008, four-month-old boy Avery Rauen, whose mother Meghan founded The Global Gastroschisis Foundation, died of complications from the disease.

For the first time, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina joined in raising awareness about gastroschisis, and on that occasion, families from those countries created a motivational poster that dispels the myths that gastroschisis is incompatible with normal life.