World Encephalitis Day 2025
Support Our World Encephalitis Day Fund
Countdown to Change
It has been over 5 years since we first began our efforts to engage the World Health Organization (WHO) to support our work following the publication of the Global Impact Report.
Coinciding with World Encephalitis Day 2025, the WHO have published a technical brief on encephalitis to engage policymakers and public health officials.
Fundraising
Marking the pinnacle of our work with the WHO, our World Encephalitis Day Fund will enable us to enact on the solutions they propose for better awareness, research and support globally. We need your help to raise £50,000 by World Encephalitis Day.
Last year our amazing World Encephalitis Day fundraisers raised nearly £10,000 towards our appeal. From office bake sales to team challenges we would love for you to set up a fundraiser for WED and you can link this to our main appeal page.
Donate
We need your support no matter how small or big and the more people we can reach with the appeal the better so please share with your networks!
Get Involved in World Encephalitis Day 2025!
World Encephalitis Day is the biggest day of the year for people whose lives have been affected by inflammation of the brain. Since its launch in 2014, World Encephalitis Day has reached 628 million people globally in our efforts to grow global awareness of encephalitis.
Saturday 22 February 2025 will be the 12th anniversary of our global awareness day and to celebrate this wonderful occasion we need supporters to help us shine a light on encephalitis.
During the past decade, World Encephalitis Day has been championed by people from all around the world. If you need any resources to share with your community, please download our 5 Encephalitis Facts:
Go #Red4WED
Every year we ask our supporters to wear something red on World Encephalitis Day and then share their photos or videos on social media, telling their followers about why they are wearing red.
On 22 February, wearing something red could mean anything – a red bow tie, red hat, red nails, red trousers or one of our official World Encephalitis Day t-shirts.
Camera shy? Just take a photo of your #Red4WED t-shirt or share our 5 Encephalitis Facts.
If you are going #Red4WED and sharing any photos or videos on social media, please use the campaign hashtag #Red4WED so we can share it on our official World Encephalitis Day website!
Light Up a Landmark
On 22 February 2025, we are asking supporters to help us turn the world #Red4WED by lighting up well-known local landmarks red.
In 2024, 249 landmarks and buildings across 29 countries went #Red4WED, including Niagara Falls, The Lotus Tower in Sri Lanka, The CCLEX Bridge in the Philippines, Kings Cross Station, London and the Olympic Park in Montreal Canada, to name a few!
How can I get involved?
Do you live near a famous local landmark? Can your place of work light up #Red4WED?
Download Light up a Building Request Letter or get in touch with us and help us to shine a light on encephalitis!
If you are able to secure a building lighting up #Red4WED, please do let us know so we can count it towards our official WED buildings portfolio!
Here are the buildings ready to go RED for WED 2025…
Be a Wonderful WED Fundraiser...
In 2024, we set ourselves an ambitious target of raising £40,000 by the end of World Encephalitis Day 2024. Without a doubt this target would not have been achieved without many of our community setting up a World Encephalitis Day fundraiser.
Your fundraiser could be:
- A physical challenge before or during World Encephalitis Day.
- An office, village hall, school, home (or other location!) bake sale or #Red4WED themed event.
- Simply setting up a page with your encephalitis story and inviting people to consider supporting our appeal.
We need your help this World Encephalitis Day as we aim to raise £50,000 to kickstart our WED Fund. From 1 February when we launch the Countdown to Change appeal on JustGiving, you will be able to set up your fundraising page and link this directly to the appeal.
In 2024, Siddiqa decided to set up a World Encephalitis Day fundraising page, simply sharing her story with family, friends and colleagues. She raised over £1,300 towards our appeal and provided the quote below to inspire you to do the same.
“I very nearly lost my life to encephalitis. In 1995 a virus I had never heard of put me in a coma on a life support machine for weeks and hospital for months. There was hardly any awareness of encephalitis. Last year I stumbled across Encephalitis International and I wrote a blog on my condition to coincide with World Encephalitis Day. I decided to do some fundraising and simply set up a page and sharing my story on JustGiving linked to their WED appeal. By the time my funding page closed I had raised over £1,300 for Encephalitis International to help them to continue to raise much needed awareness of the condition through the fantastic work they do globally.”
Siddiqa is raising money to help our WED Fund this year too.
WED - Official Partners
Encephalitis International is proud to be delivering this year’s World Encephalitis Day in collaboration with several generous corporate supporters.
We have a range of campaign partnership opportunities and can be flexible for what suits your organisation.
WED - Highlights
Take a look back at highlights from our previous World Encephalitis Day campaigns.
