A major new initiative from the World Diabetes Foundation – The Diabetes Compass – kicked off in late spring 2021 with the ambition to support health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) delivering the right diabetes care at the right time.
In 2019, an ambitious new effort to improve the lives of indigenous communities in central and Latin America began.
Today, too many children with type 1 diabetes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are not diagnosed due to lack of knowledge or capacity in their local health systems, resulting in thousands of premature deaths. If they are diagnosed, many have inconsistent access to care or receive inadequate education and support.
What inspired you? WDF asked this question of our 2021 Walk organisers – and received some poignant responses. One of them was from Anthea Usher of Cape Town, South Africa.
Anthea’s daughter, Caylee, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 12 years old. Caylee struggled with the disease and its daily challenges, Anthea recalls – the insulin injections and glucose tests, the new dietary rules, and the effects of a complex chronic disease on her schoolwork and social life.
In 2014, there was only one place where the roughly 40,000 residents of Comoros, an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, could receive diabetes care - the National Hospital, El-Maarouf on the island of Mohéli.
WDF’s first new partnerships of 2021 are a wide-ranging and ambitious group. Two address the urgent global issues of COVID-19 and humanitarian crises. Some, such as the project in Lesotho, mark the Foundation’s first partnership in the country , while others, such as the Phase II project in Palestine, build on long-term relationships and learnings.
Still other projects, in Canada and India, represent innovative new approaches to diabetes prevention and financing for diabetes care.
The Diabetes Storytelling Lab is looking for 50 innovative storytellers and community leaders in India to develop creative communication products that can support diabetes awareness in India.
The World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) and the Danish Red Cross (DRC) began collaborating in 2013, with a diabetes prevention project in rural Georgia. A second diabetes prevention and care project followed in Armenia in 2016. Then, just last month, a new joint project in Lebanon received funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, providing a much-needed investment into that country’s health system.
More than 350 million people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) live with diabetes. 77% of these do not receive adequate care. The rise in people living with diabetes is putting immense pressure on healthcare professionals (HCPs) and healthcare systems where resources are scarce.
With a timely diagnosis and proper treatment, diabetes is typically a manageable disease. Yet many HCPs in LMICs lack sufficient skills and resources to prevent, diagnose and treat diabetes.
Marginalised, vulnerable and underserved populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) continue to be hardest hit by diabetes and its complications. Yet responses remain under-resourced, both from domestic resources and development assistance.