gwen's blog

Diabetes Compass moves towards a 2023 launch

At a Diabetes Compass workshop on a February day in Colombo, the participants - about 25 Sri Lankan healthcare experts and WDF representatives - divided into four groups. Each group received a profile of a local resident with diabetes. 

The profiles, which included text and pictures, described real people who were struggling to control their blood sugar. Several had developed advanced complications. One had recently died from the disease.  None of them had received a timely diagnosis. 

Stepping into the gap, together

This article was originally published on the occasion of WDF's 20th anniversary on WDF20.org

Partnerships are at the heart of WDF’s work. This means that the projects WDF supports are initiated, implemented and sustained by local partners. Large and small, public and private, grassroots and global, WDF’s partners take on many shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common: an idea for how to alleviate human suffering related to diabetes. 

In Tanzania, a cascade of NCD knowledge begins

On a bright day in March, 54 doctors from eight regions settled into a conference room in Dodoma, Tanzania to become Trainer of Trainers in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

They were not alone. Similar three-day trainings of 36 healthcare professionals representing two regions had already taken place. Training for an additional 68 healthcare professionals representing the country’s remaining 10 regions is planned later in 2022.  

Women’s health is a nation’s wealth

This article was originally published on the occasion of WDF's 20th anniversary on WDF20.org

Millions of women each year are diagnosed with pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes and pregnancy hypertension (a precursor to pre-eclampsia). Research shows women who experience these conditions during one pregnancy are at very high risk of the same and additional problems in subsequent pregnancies, as well as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease later in life.

WDF projects invest in nurses around the world

International Nurses Day is celebrated worldwide every May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. This year’s theme from the International Council of Nurses is Nurses: A Voice to Lead - Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health.

It is a theme that resonates with WDF, which has trained more than 110,000 nurses through its partnership projects since 2002.