Looking at Sheilas tiny body and sparse hair, you wouldn’t think she was more than two years old, but she is six.

For visitors, the vast landscapes, mountains and wilderness of Kenya are beautiful spectacles. For people with diabetes living here, the vastness combined with poverty means lack of access to basic health care.

For people living with diabetes in Africa and other developing regions of the world, the consequence of poor access to health care is a high risk of suffering and dying early from complications related to diabetes. For a child with type 1 diabetes, this can mean death within a few weeks.

Visiting the life of people with diabetes

At the Naivasha District Hospital, in the Rift Valley 1½ hours drive north of Nairobi is one of the 42 main diabetes clinics that have been set up by the project team from the Diabetes Management & Information Centre (DMIC) in Kenya. 

In connection with the Diabetes Summit Africa, the press was invited to join the WDF Board of Directors to a field visit to this centre to witness the project related activities. The press got a first hand account of the despair and struggle people with diabetes suffer – as well as the hope and change the project is bringing about.

One of many living with diabetes

The diabetes clinic was established in April 2005. In the first month of operation, the clinic had 22 patients. Today the number has increased to 100 monthly visits with an estimated 5 new cases per month. One of them is Sheila who has had type 1 diabetes for one year.

Looking at her tiny body and sparse hair, you wouldn’t think she was more than two years old, but she is six. Her mother, Saweria Wambul still carries her on her back, tied on a blanket, in the manner of a baby or toddler.

Sheila’s diabetes was discovered at the Naivasha District Hospital when she was admitted for treatment for pneumonia. At the time, she was suffering severely from the effects of her diabetes and had passed into a diabetic coma.

Poverty prevents proper care

Sheila is the youngest of six children and lives with her parents in a tiny house in a rural area about 40 km from the town of Naivasha. Mother Saweria stays at home to care for the family and the father is unemployed, but sometimes does odd manual jobs to support his family. The parents try to take care of all their children, but poverty prevents them from giving Sheila the care she needs.

She now receives insulin treatment for her diabetes, but not on a regular basis, mainly due to lack of funds. And since her family cannot afford to make the journey to Naivasha District Hospital more often, Sheila only has her blood glucose levels tested every few months.

Apart from the overwhelming lack of funds to pay for insulin, treatment and transportation, Sheila and her family face another key problem when trying to manage her diabetes. Their home is far from the diabetes clinic and there is no public transport to get there.

The best way for them to get to town is to get up very early and try to take a lift from a worker travelling in the same direction. Most often, they cannot afford to pay for this journey into Naivasha, which involves travelling along a dirt track, full of potholes for the most part. Saweria feels that making such a journey as a mother with a sick child is extremely traumatic.

A big problem getting small attention

In Naivasha the diabetes clinic, management estimate that the diabetes prevalence is perhaps over 10% in the adult population – compared with 6% having HIV/Aids, despite the large numbers there is very little Governmental and non governmental support for diabetes care.

Patients visiting the diabetes clinic show a certain frustration; HIV, tuberculosis and malaria treatment is free of cost, whereas they have to pay for tests and though subsidised still pay for medication. As one medical officer at the clinic said “people with Aids are better off than people diagnosed with diabetes”.

Clinics and awareness spread across Kenya

Naivasha is one of 42 main clinics established with support from WDF. Furthermore, 113 mini-clinics have been created at local dispensaries and health centres.

“Our project partners are doing a tremendous job in creating awareness about diabetes, to be able to detect, treat and prevent diabetes”, says programme manager Sanne Frost Helt, who visited several clinics in April.

More than 300 doctors and close to 2,000 nurses and paramedics have been trained. 600,000 people have received diabetes education and 3.3 million people have been sensitised by awareness activities.

Sanne Frost Helt experienced a camp at a local primary school in Kerwa, one hour north of Nairobi. Despite heavy rains making bus transport into the area impossible, 367 people attended.

Some had walked 30 km to attend the camp – to get information, be screened, visit the doctor and receive medicine if required. That day, 66 known diabetics received medical attention while 18 new cases of diabetes and 34 persons with IGT were detected. 

Read more about the project

Press coverage

Read or listen to how the media covered the Diabetes Summit