A rare illness is considered such when its incidence on a population is below a given threshold within a specific span of time. At present, the threshold is 0.05% of the population, i.e. 5 individuals every 10,000 inhabitants. The rare-disease portal “Orphanet” estimates that figures are in the tens of millions in Europe, 3 million of whom in Italy, and 70% of these are young children. The number of rare diseases we know at present ranges between 7 and 8 thousand, but that number increases as research gets on, and it does not take into account undiagnosed diseases that can be classified by a process of elimination. “Faire avec” is a wide-range reportage project that started in 2017 and which includes the stories of people who have contracted rare diseases.“ Faire avec” showcases the daily routines of people involved. Different stories that can be read individually, but that put together a contribute to build a collection of experiences and a view on the subject of “rare diseases”. I focused the attention of my camera’s viewfinder not only on the pathologies, but also and above all on the strategies of adjustment and the aspects of resilience and development of individual potential, progress, change and awareness of limitations.
