gwen's blog

In Turkey, peer education leads to lower weight and blood sugar

Participants in a 2012 peer training session in Erzurum, Turkey.

In 2011, the Turkish Diabetes Association proposed an ambitious response to Turkey’s fast-rising diabetes rates. They would create a network of peer educators who would then hold meetings for people with diabetes, helping them to understand the disease and provide better care for themselves.

New film explores diabetes burden, and solutions

Defeating Diabetes - One Day. WDF image film.

Tanzanian children are learning how to avoid diabetes through a host of WDF-supported prevention programmes.

SEE THE FILM (9 mins)

Why do 75% of people with diabetes live in developing countries? And what can be done to reduce this burden – not just today, but for generations to come?

WDF supports 26 new projects in first half of 2017

Health care provider working in a WDF-funded diistrict level diabetes programme in Itzapalapa district, Mexico City

Below is a list of the new partnership projects that received WDF funding in the first six months of 2017. (Several advocacy projects also received funding in the first half of the year; these are not listed.)

Links to project descriptions will be added as they become available.

New projects signed in first half of 2017

Yemen: caring for diabetes in times of war

Abdullah Almatary Aden Diabetes Center HCP training

SEE A SHORT SLIDESHOW (1 min.)

In March of 2015, long-simmering tensions between Yemen’s traditional North and socialist South exploded into civil war. Houthi forces from the north invaded Aden, forcing tens of thousands to flee. One of them was Dr Abdullah Almatary, a WDF project partner since 2010 and the director of the Aden Diabetes Center.

In Mali, youth with diabetes gain skills and support

SEE A FILM - (English, 6 mins.)

VOIR UN FILM - (Français, 6 mins)

Makani learned what diabetes is. Oumar learned how to store insulin. And Esther learned that she’s not alone.

Dead Sea Declaration calls for urgent action on diabetes in refugees

SEE A SHORT FILM (4 mins.)

For refugees and those who host them, securing safety, food, shelter and acute medical care comes first. Yet as millions of displaced people move into camps or cramped urban settings, often with limited access to healthy food and exercise, increasing numbers of them are facing a new threat – diabetes.

International conference explores how to improve diabetes prevention and care for refugees

DEAD SEA, JORDAN - In a conference organised by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), experts in healthcare services delivery for refugees from different sectors are gathered at the Dead Sea in Jordan this week. They will address an urgent issue - how to improve the quality of healthcare services delivered to refugee populations with diabetes - and will discuss the best prevention and treatment practices used internationally.

World Diabetes Foundation celebrates 15th anniversary

It all began on 12 March, 2002. On that day, Novo Nordisk A/S shareholders supported an innovative idea: they agreed to create a new, independent foundation dedicated to improving life for the most vulnerable people affected by diabetes in the developing world.

In India, a floating clinic brings needed care

Life is difficult in West Bengal’s Sunderban area. Most residents are poor, and their work - fishing and honey hunting – are dangerous. Fishermen face storms and accidents, while many honey hunters die in tiger attacks, a common event in Sunderban’s mangrove forests.

“This area is predominantly inhabited by the people belonging to marginalised communities, and it reels from inaccessibility, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and economic stagnation,” says Archana Mandal from the Jujersa Women and Child Welfare Organization.

2017 Fundraiser: Rwanda diabetes awareness and support

Two decades after ethnic tension between Rwanda’s Tutsis and Hutus culminated in genocide, the country is earning praise for its development successes. Its economy is growing, and on the healthcare front, deaths from HIV, TB, and malaria and maternal mortality have decreased dramatically. Yet challenges remain.