Diabetes book benefits children with diabetes

Life with diabetes is disclosed in a book, “Young Voices”, produced by the medical company Novo Nordisk. The profit of the books sold goes to a project supported by World Diabetes Foundation that will help children in Tanzania.

The book “Young Voices” gives the reader a peak into the lives of young people living with diabetes in a world, where they in some countries are able to lead a normal life - within the confined limits of a strict diabetes control and a steady flow of lifesaving insulin.

In other countries diabetes affects the quality of life for the person with diabetes as well as the whole family negatively. The condition can lead to poverty and narrow the possibilities that children without diabetes have access to, such as going to school. 

8 personal stories from different parts of the world

In the fall and winter 2004, author Hala Khalaf went on a journey around the world together with photographer Jesper Westley. The team visited young people from USA, Russia, Denmark, Thailand, and UK; Jordan, Tanzania and Mexico.

Happy George Matanje, diagnosed with diabetes at the age of three.

Among the voices given room to tell their stories; one personal story stands out from the crowd. The voice of five year old Happy with type-1 diabetes, born into a poor Tanzanian family, she is spending her days in the rooms of the family flat. Her mother works 12 hours a day to pay for the daily life which includes a nanny who takes care of Happy and her baby brother. Her father is a fireman, trying to take care of her daughter and her diabetes.

Happy – one of many children struggling with diabetes

Happy likes to watch television but most of all she likes Sundays, when the dangerous streets of her neighbourhood are replaced by the company of cousins at the aunt’s house by the sea, and a hot and filling meal takes the place of the salty crackers she lives of on weekdays. And she can’t wait to go to school.

”One day, I am going to be cured, right? And when that happens, you will let me go to school right? Because right now you are not letting me go to school, because I am sick, right”. Her mother, knowing that the expenses of buying insulin and going to the hospital for check-ups makes it impossible for the family to afford an education, answers her daughter; “Yes, Happy, when you are cured you can go to school”.

Happy’s blood glucose level is often out of control. Lacking a glucometer, her parents must be alert and try to recognise the signs of a fluctuating blood sugar level; when she is sleepy or moody her levels are low. When she goes to the bathroom and always asking for a drink, she is high, and she needs her insulin.

Hala Khalaf and Jesper Westley visited Happy and her family in December 2004 to capture her story. Only one week later Happy’s levels went high and she was admitted to hospital in a coma. The next morning Happy died from her diabetes. The book is dedicated to her, and will hopefully let every person reading the stories be reminded of how different life with diabetes can be.

New WDF project will help children like Happy

Buying the book you support children in Tanzania who like Happy have type-1 diabetes and whose families are not able to take care of their diabetes. The project “Children with diabetes” is still in its early stages and is planned to really take off in the beginning of 2006. The overall plan is to set up a fund that will supply a group of children in one or two sites in Tanzania with insulin and urine and blood glucose strips at affordable prices – sometimes at no cost if the family is very poor.

The fund will be administered by the Tanzanian Diabetes Association with which WDF has been working for the past 3 years. The fund will operate in urban sites outside of Dar es Salaam and TDA expects approximately 30-50 children per site. Normal survival rate for a child diagnosed with type-1 diabetes in Tanzania is 1 year – with this new project this sad survival rate is expected to increase significantly.
 
The children and their families will be given education about diabetes control and on a long view plans are made to arrange camps for the children. The camps will allow the children to interact with other children in the same situation and to receive intensive education in how to live with their diabetes. As a result, the children are expected to have a better quality of life through improved diabetes control and a better social network with their peers.