Global awareness on World Diabetes Day 2007

On World Diabetes Day, 207,694 people from 70 different countries joined the Global Diabetes Walk in 2007. When walking, their thoughts have been with the 246 million people around the world who not only walk, but live with diabetes around the clock.

Every “awareness walk” is a result of hard work and creative thinking from dedicated people. Here we share some of the highlights from around the world from volunteers who devote their time and energy to raise awareness about the struggle that people with diabetes must endure in their daily lives, especially in the developing world.

Children celebrating WDD in Canada

The World Diabetes Day itself is celebrated on November 14, marking the birthday of Canadian-born Frederick Banting, who along with Charles Best first conceived the idea which led to insulin being used as a treatment for diabetes in 1922.

Banting-Canada_350px 1,350 students in London, Canada walked - and jumped - for diabetes on WDD.

On World Diabetes Day a secondary school in Banting’s home state named after him didn’t miss the opportunity to celebrate the discoverer’s birthday. “The Global Diabetes Walk in London Ontario, Canada has been overwhelming with the participation of 1,350 students”, explains Trevor McLellan from The Canadian Diabetes Association who partnered with the students and staff of Sir. Frederick G. Banting Secondary School in London, Ontario in organizing the walk.

The Chinese government celebrating WDD

The Managing Director of the World Diabetes Foundation, Dr. Anil Kapur visited China to join the celebrations on November 14th. The WDF was invited by its project partners from the National Diabetes Programme. The project has provided training to thousands of health care professionals and helped raise public awareness to the cause.

China-WDD_350px Diabetes screening was offered during WDD in China.

The Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health, China, in association with National Centre for Chronic and NCD Control and Prevention, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had planned a variety of activities throughout the country to mobilise people in the fight against diabetes by increasing awareness of the risk factors and by promoting healthy lifestyle choices.

In addition to an impressive display of gymnastics and a cultural show, the children from the No. 11 School in Beijing celebrated the World Diabetes Day by participating in a enjoyable basket ball tournament alongwith senior officials from the Ministry of Health.

The World Diabetes Day programme was attended by hundreds of students, teachers, parents, officials and media people. Dr. Anil Kapur also addressed the assembled children asking them to take a pledge to ensure that they would seek to follow a healthy way of living and propagate the messages received to their families and friends.

The World Diabetes Day received massive media coverage, Dr Wu Fan and Dr Anil Kapur appeared on a famous prime time talk show Dialogue on CCTV 9 - the Chinese International TV spreading the message across to 45 million potential viewers worldwide.

See the TV programmes; part 1, part 2

India - A week dedicated to diabetes

Since 2004, Dr. N. Murugesan, a project partner of the World Diabetes Foundation in Chennai has arranged walks and motivated doctors and health care personnel attending training to arrange walks in their local community. Since 2004, more than 70,000 people have joined walks arranged as result of his initiatives.

India_murugesan_350px 1,500 people joined the Global Diabetes Walk arranged by Dr.Murugesan in Chennai.

Alongside the walk, Dr. Murugesan and his project group have arranged awareness-raising activities; they call it “Diabetes Week” and schedule their activities in the week before World Diabetes Day. “I must say that the “Global Diabetes Walk” initiated in the year 2004 has grown in to a mega programme with various dimensions, shades and colours of different interventions, which will have a definite impact on the behaviour of the targeted groups” he says.

The initiatives include the distribution of information material, participation in radio shows, awareness and screening camps and lifestyle modification seminars. These educational sessions are held for the general public as well as for specific groups of school children, IT professionals, policemen, transport workers, teachers and journalists.

Some of the major walks were organised in India. A total of 95,974 registered people walked in India including, World Diabetes Foundation project partners, Novo Nordisk employees, media companies, diabetes associations and individuals.

Screening for care in Brazil

In Brazil, Prof. Fadlo is running one of the most ambitious projects supported by the World Diabetes Foundation, covering the training of health care professionals in 51 medium-sized cities in Brazil.

Brazil_350px Distance to the diabetes clinics is one of many obstacles standing in the way of propor diabetes management in Brazil. One of the walks challenged the distance and logistics.

In Brazil health care is free, but waiting for tests and treatment takes considerable time. Dr. Fadlo and ANAD (Associação Nacional de Assitência ao Diabético) arranged a screening camp at a college in São Paolo in connection with the Global Diabetes Walk. The purpose of the campaign was to offer people with diabetes and people at risk of developing diabetes an array of tests that would otherwise take up to one year to receive.

More than 500 health care professionals volunteered to screen for diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, perform eye tests, examine feet and measure HbA1c-levels among other services. This year, an impressive 11,000 people took part in the event.

Creating awareness in Vanuatu

In the pacific island of Vanuatu, Mrs. Theto Moses, National NCD Coordinator, and the Public Health Department conducted a physical activity monitoring study for workers in both government and non-governmental sectors in the weeks before and after the World Diabetes Day. “It was a first time ever we have conducted such a study and a total of 600 people were involved and received information”, she says.

The Communication Manager of the World Diabetes Foundation, Mr.Jamal Butt reports that the 2007 walk was the biggest ever in the history of the Foundation; “The Walk shows how small ideas can evolve into major interventions and by empowering individuals, non-governmental organisations, corporate partners, diabetes associations and media agencies to support and promote healthy living”, he says.

See the walks