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For the families involved basic materials for treatment of diabetes - like insulin, syringes, urine strips and blood sugar measurement devices - have been out of reach, because of poor economic background. For patients referred to BIRDEM treatment is free of charge. However, paying for medicines and syringes is for many of the families too great an obstacle, with the sad result that they are not able to provide treatment for the children.
Many of the children and their families enrolled in the fundraising program first encounter the facts of diabetes at BIRDEM. For the families struggling with poverty, having a child diagnosed with a chronic disease that demands a steady flow of treatment, control visits and medicine, puts even more load on the shoulders of the burdened family.
Sandeep Sur from the Novo Nordisk office in Bangladesh works closely with the people at BIRDEM Paediatrics Department. He tells this story of 6 year old boy Parimol, one of the children who benefits from the program: “He is a newly diagnosed diabetic and has been admitted in BIRDEM.
Parimol belongs to a poor family, his father works in a barber shop and his mother works in a garment factory. They live in the slum area of Dhaka City. They never knew of his condition until they were referred to the hospital. His mother still believes that his disease will be cured in the future. We will have to give them education and a lot of counselling about diabetes.”
Childhood diabetes – affecting the whole family
The children, once playing and participating in family life, gradually become ill and are typically admitted after a severe medical condition. They too have to accept a new way of life.
12-year old Miss Pinky has received insulin since she at the age of ten was diagnosed with diabetes. Her family learned about her condition, when she was presented with ketoacidosis and was unconscious for 36 hours.
Getting used to a life with diabetes was difficult for both her parents and Pinky. Her mother was upset and depressed when her daughter refused to take the insulin. Pinky wonders why God has chosen to give her such a disease. In her mind only the obese and people taking a lot of sweets suffer from diabetes. In the beginning Pinky feared taking insulin, and she used to cry and hide from her mother. Now she is starting to understand the importance and co-operates with her mother.
Every dollar, 20,000 USD so far, donated to the program presents a great help to the children of Bangladesh for whom insulin and basic materials are otherwise out of reach. The money comes from employees from Novo Nordisk who every month donate part of their paycheck through the "Take Action" program running in the Danish offices of Novo Nordisk.
Until now BIRDEM has only been able to recruit 38 children for the program. Some families are not able to continue treatment which includes control visits and collecting the free supplies. This discouraging fact has made it more difficult to reach the goal to support 60 children.
While our partners still work on enrolling more children, the already included are benefiting from the success.
Together with BIRDEM WDF has decided to continue the program throughout 2005. | 
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