Taking action in Bangladesh

More than 80% of the population in Bangladesh lives on less than 2 USD a day making even basic medical care unaffordable. Now a Novo Nordisk fundraising project in Bangladesh is helping children with type 1 diabetes receive the medical care and attention they need.

The project in Bangladesh is an initiative supported with funds from Novo Nordisk employees and carried out by BIRDEM (Bangladesh Institute for Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders). BIRDEM is the largest enterprise of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh and the WHO collaborating centre for prevention and control of diabetes.

The project has until now focused on providing children with type 1 diabetes registered at BIRDEM with basic medical care, insulin and syringes and blood sugar measurement devices free of cost.
These are basic materials normally out of reach for most families in Bangladesh.

“The burden of diabetes is on the rise here as everywhere else. It is estimated that almost three million people have diabetes in Bangladesh and few of them receive optimum medical care. Having a child diagnosed with diabetes can place an overwhelming burden on a family – both financially and resource wise. Most of them have never heard of diabetes before and are unfamiliar with the level of care demanded by this type of disease,” says Dr. Kishwar Azad, Professor of Paediatrics at BIRDEM.

Saving the coming generation

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most families cannot afford to pay for the medicine and materials required for treatment, leaving them with no option but to neglect treatment. The programme has until now sponsored 60 children. The aim is to have more children enrolled in the programme, and to extend the scope to include regular monitoring of glycaemic control by HBA1c, in addition to providing insulin and syringes free of cost. 

“The awareness of diabetes and the implications of not treating the condition is very poor among the people of Bangladesh. Therefore seeing the children responding to the treatment and discussing their problems and sharing their thoughts with each other and their families has been a major achievement and an inspiration for us working on this programme,” says Dr. Zabeen Bedowra of the Department of Paediatrics and Neonatology at BIRDEM.

To live with diabetes

Inspired by the children’s capabilities to express how it feels like to live with diabetes Dr. Zabeen Bedowra together with the World Diabetes Foundation developed the idea of having the children express their feelings through paintings. With help from a local artist and the Novo Nordisk office in Bangladesh, Dr. Zabeen Bedowra invited the children enrolled in the project to an art session at the Institute of Fine Arts on the occasion of World Diabetes Day 2006.

“It was amazing to see their enthusiasm. With the instructions from the artist, the children started drawing as if they had done little else all their lives. Most of them come from impoverished backgrounds and several of them do not even attend schools. But the stories they were able to convey through their paintings clearly showed us the impact diabetes has on their lives. You could tell that what they expressed came directly from the heart,” says Dr. Zabeen Bedowra.

The drawings will be used as a tool for encouraging a dialogue to improve diabetes care for children. The drawings will also be used to raise awareness of the increasing prevalence of children with diabetes in developing countries and the vital need for preventive and care initiatives.

Making a difference

The funds used in the project are the result of the Novo Nordisk ‘Take Action’ programme, an employee volunteer programme where employees raise funds by taking unique initiatives or donate a monthly amount from their pay check to support specific projects. 

“It is an opportunity for the individual employee to get involved in the social community work that we as a company find increasingly important to support and reflects our pledge as a market leader to change diabetes by demonstrating corporate social responsibility. The Take Action programme is very popular. People have seen that by taking action they can truly make a difference such as in supporting the children in Bangladesh with medicine and basic materials that would otherwise be out of their reach,” says Lise Kingo, Executive Vice president Novo Nordisk A/S.