Q2-09

Forging partnerships and sharing knowledge

In this past quarter, the World Diabetes Foundation has continued to forge new strategic alliances, and we are very proud to have entered an agreement with the United Nations Office for Partnerships. With this agreement, we further emphasise our commitment to cooperate with global partners to achieve the Millennium Development Goals worldwide. The World Diabetes Foundation already works to achieve these goals within our primary focus on health related issues in the area of diabetes and related non-communicable diseases in the developing countries. Through our special focus on women and diabetes, children with diabetes and tuberculosis and diabetes, the Foundation  contributes directly to Millennium Development Goals 3,4, 5 and 6.

With our large project portfolio consisting of more than 200 projects, several useful resource materials have been developed and to facilitate the knowledge sharing process, we have now developed an e-library on our website. The e-library is a World Diabetes Foundation knowledge base of documents developed by our project partners worldwide. It is full of relevant material for you to download free of charge in several different languages. We have also set up an interactive diabetes clinic, and we invite you to take a tour through the three rooms of the diabetes clinic to explore all the different elements applicable to different levels of diabetes care. All features are clickable in the top bar of this Newsletter and the World Diabetes Foundation website. In addition, you can read about the foot care model based on the successful and often repeated step-by-step approach.

Finally, the theme we want to share with you in this second thematic Newsletter is “Women and Diabetes” - or more specifically, gestational diabetes. Close partnerships with our local project partners allow us to continually monitor the situation in the field at close range. The hands-on knowledge from our partners is our most valuable tool when advocating for an issue. In this thematic edition of the Newsletter, we zoom in on gestational diabetes with stories from Cameroon, Cuba, India and the West Bank. These are stories of women who live and endure pregnancy and childbirth in very difficult conditions - and of local champions who work hard to ensure that women deliver healthy babies and enjoy safe motherhood.  

In the Academic Corner, I encourage you to read a review of the scope and implications of gestational diabetes, arguing for its rightful place on the global maternal health agenda.

Enjoy your reading.

Dr. Anil Kapur

Managing Director
World Diabetes Foundation

Academic corner: Diabetes during pregnancy

More than half a million women die in connection with pregnancy or childbirth every year. Worldwide, 70 million women of reproductive age could be affected by diabetes during pregnancy. The Academic Corner discusses the urgency of including gestational diabetes in the global maternal health agenda.

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Where it all began: The Tamil Nadu gestational diabetes project

More than 12,000 women screened for gestational diabetes in Tamil Nadu uncovered an alarmingly high prevalence rate of 13.9%. The methods used in the project supported by the World Diabetes Foundation have been echoed throughout the state, making screening for gestational diabetes mandatory for all pregnant women, free of charge.

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Improving maternal care in Cuba

Cuban doctors already had the knowledge, but they lacked the infrastructure to systematically screen and register diabetes in pregnant women. The World Diabetes Foundation has supported the extension of maternal services for women with diabetes to all of Cuba’s provinces.

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Reaching communities in the West Bank

Of the 2.4 million people living in the West Bank, an estimated 11% live with diabetes. Because access to health care is a constant challenge, a dedicated group of health professionals and a Palestinian NGO have set out to provide access to care in their communities - in a comprehensive manner.

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Can gestational diabetes explain Cameroon's maternal deaths?

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