What’s the best way to help people lose weight, exercise more, and live healthier lives? Start with respect and collaboration - and build from there.
That’s the recommendation of Diabetes South Africa, which has been teaching South African healthcare providers about diabetes and helping them improve their own health since 2008.
It began in 2004 with a simple idea. By organising walks on November 14 - World Diabetes Day - organisations and individuals could raise awareness about diabetes, and how to prevent it. These walks would be low-cost, educational, and fun. WDF would help by providing banners, tools, and guidance.
BAGSVÆRD, DENMARK – The World Diabetes Foundation today announces the constitution of a new Board of Directors. The Board consists of Dr Anil Kapur (Chair), Ms Camilla Sylvest (Vice-chair), Ms Ida Nicolaisen, Dr Kaushik Ramaiya, Prof Abdallah Daar, and Mr Frederik Kier.
What interventions supported by WDF are the most effective? How can project learnings best be documented and communicated? How can this data support the investment case for diabetes and NCDs – ultimately helping developing countries save money and lives?
As WDF’s project portfolio has expanded in geographical scope, number and size in recent years, these questions have taken on increasing urgency, says WDF Managing Director Leif Fenger Jensen.
WDF signed four new projects in Africa and central Asia in the first half of 2019, and approved several others that are now in the final phases of contract negotiations.
The delegation arrived by boat. The group – seven staff from the Surinamese NGOs One Stop Shop and Medical Mission, and one from the World Diabetes Foundation – had travelled for hours to reach Ladoeani, a village on the banks of the Suriname River, and they received a warm welcome.
Alhassane Diallo is speaking, and the teenagers surrounding him are hanging on his every word.
“Like this,” he says, removing a vial of human insulin from its packaging. As he sends a young woman to wash her hands before checking her blood sugar, a boy edges closer to listen.
The building in Lomé, Togo has an unremarkable name – Association pour la promotion de la femme (Association for the Advancement of Women). Yet for the many women who pass in and out of its doors each day, it offers something remarkable indeed: a discreet refuge for people with HIV/AIDS.
In 2016, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health launched a comprehensive plan to protect the country’s residents from premature morbidity and mortality related to NCDs. It included a strong rationale for action, the Minister of Health’s endorsement – and a call for more financing to address the significant funding gap.
India held the world’s first national GDM Awareness Day on March 10 – raising awareness about the link between maternal health and diabetes nationwide, and inviting pregnant women to hospitals and clinics for free screening.