The Maldives is an island nation consisting of 200 inhabited islands. Upon project start, the main challenge for diabetes prevention in the Maldives was that there were no trained diabetes educators outside the capital.Part of the Maldives' Health Master Plan for 2006-2015 is to train primary health workers and run screening programmes. The Diabetes Society of Maldives will implement the project, which essentially aims at training health care providers from the 200 inhabited islands in diabetes education.
• 125 diabetes educators and 49 nurses have been trained (total of 174 health care professionals) in a total of 174 out 188 inhabited islands of the Maldives• 282 awareness and/or screening camps have been conducted reaching out to populations on 174 islands with 16,756 screenings registered, where 763 people have been identified with diabetes and 2,681 with prediabetes.• 174 diabetes clinics have been established or strengthened at 174 islands, and so far 763 patients have been treated at these clinics.• Diabetes educational material has been produced and disseminated across the 140 islands.• Massive awareness campaigns were conducted on World Diabetes Day 2010 and 2011. Diabetes Society Maldives won the 2011 Global Diabetes Walk award• At the 66th World Health Assembly at WHO HQ Geneva 2013, Diabetes Society Maldives was awarded the ‘Dr Lee Jong Memorial Prize’ for ‘an outstanding contribution to public health’