World Diabetes Foundation turns 20 and celebrates the achievement of the goal offering an online symposium entitled “20 years of improving lives together- the power of partnership towards better diabetes care and prevention” on Wednesday March 30th. An extraordinary opportunity for professionals to discuss best practices and find new approaches in care and prevention of diabetes, bearing in mind lessons from the past while looking forward. Among many other speakers, Doctors with Africa is taking part in the symposium to take the experience and the expertise acquired in Africa and to emphasize the importance of partnerships such as the one started in 2014 with the WDF that has been bearing fruit ever since. In Ethiopia, for example, which is rated among the four countries in Africa with the highest incidence of diabetes counting more than 1,7 billion people with the disease. A three-year project, ended in 2022 and implemented with the support of the WDF, yielded remarkable results: 14.455 people tested for diabetes and 17.098 tested for hypertension; 22.470 patients treated in health facilities supported by Doctors with Africa in the framework of the project and 392.355 people sensitized to the topic. Moreover, 505 health workers trained on NCDs and 105 supervisions carried out in health facilities.
The commitment to tackle NCDs is renewed in other countries across Africa such as Sierra Leone and Mozambique where Cuamm is implementing screening and sensitization activities, offering diabetes treatment and promoting healthy habits. In order to reaffirm its decades-long call to beat NCDs, the project “Hub and Spoke” launched in Mozambique by Doctors with Africa aims at creating health centers to provide diabetic children and young adults with treatment and care. Over 70 years of presence in Africa, Doctors with Africa has witnessed the rise of numerous non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, little-known and neglected conditions. The partnership with WDF permitted to implement interventions to bring about a change in health systems, engaging communities, local activists, health authorities and Ministry of Health. The population’s health benefitted from integrated responses that matched the experience and knowledge of Cuamm with WDF’s professionality and competencies. As in Ethiopia and Mozambique, positive results were achieved in Sierra Leone where a total amount of 5.342 pregnant women and 2.847 patients from 10 health facilities were screened in the districts of Pcmh and Pujehun.
«I wish to thank WDF for this opportunity – says Andrea Atzori, Head of International Relations at Cuamm and speaker in the symposium. Over many years of on-field interventions, we have learnt from experience that the defeat of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes must be addressed taking into account three cornerstones that perfectly reflect the mission of Doctors with Africa Cuamm, namely: the strengthening of health systems, which means that care and prevention of diabetes must be integrated into local health services; the engagement of multi-level stakeholders, from the Minister to hospitals up to health facilities and communities; last but not least we believe that no one single person can be left behind and every efforts must be made to reach the “last mile”. Therefore, partnership as the one between Cuamm and WDF are worth and do make a difference to everyone, everywhere, only if context-oriented».
