DISARMING DIABETES DAILY

Written by Sarah Biyinzika, YLD Uganda representative, YLD Africa Region representative, 2019-2021 Talking about challenges faced in managing diabetes in my country Uganda Allow me take you through how I got to participate in the  International Diabetes Federation  (IDF)  Young Leaders in Diabetes  (YLD) 2019-2021 Program. After a spell of poor management and health challenges, I got involved in diabetes advocacy. In 2018, I started a blog called The African Diabetic (which will soon be changed to The Ugandan Diabetic) where I shared my stories, challenges and triumphs as a type 1 diabetic (T1D). I did this in an attempt to get back on the right track with my health as well as reach others that felt alone in the struggle. I also started my search for other Diabetics and that’s how I met Mukantwari Edith Prudence Sabiiti.  Not only was she a fellow Type 1 Diabetic diagnosed the same year as myself, she was also a nutritionist. Since nutrition was the challenge I struggle

Written by Taremwa Ian Mark My name is Ian and I am 22 years old. I am a known diabetic, to be more specific, Type 1 diabetes for the last 1 year. Unfortunately, I have lived a quite tricky and challenging life based on the fact that I have been brought up by a single mother. My father abandoned us; and by us I mean myself, my mother and my sister. But we managed to grow up. Talemwa Ian-Recently enrolled in the CDiC project The Lord has really been so good to me. I got diagnosed with diabetes on 23 rd of May 2018 and I was in Dubai at the time, where I had to work in order to try and fend for myself and my family. This was because after my secondary school, I wasn’t so fortunate to join university since the funds weren’t available. After getting out hospital, I faced a great challenge of denial of diabetes, I hated myself and thought I wasn’t good enough, I even started thinking maybe I was just born to suffer. Sadly, I had to return to Uganda because I had failed miserab

Written by Edith Mukantwari Attending the SPICES project dissemination workshop on Thursday 29 th August 2019, was a truly life altering moment for me, in the best way possible. When I got the call to attend and give a talk on the patient’s experience, I was nervous. As always, I had too much to say and didn’t really know how to organise my thoughts. I’m always afraid that I’ll forget something very important and the pressure is high. When the day finally came though, I was very calm for the first time since I’ve been attending these events. The event did not disappoint and I am so happy that I get a chance to report about it so that more patients have a chance to know and keep up with ongoing developments in healthcare so they can get the best chance to get relevant care and interventions. Dr. Geofrey Musinguzi, MUSPH, presenting project impact and updates at the dissemination workshop SPICES is an acronym that stands for “Scaling up Packages of Interventions for Card

Written by Sewanyana Rodney Alex November is diabetes awareness month and the theme this year is "The Family and Diabetes." As I tell you my story of living with type 1 diabetes, I hope you can tell how big of an influence family can have on how patients manage their diabetes and appreciate that our fellow diabetes warriors are a family as well. Facilitating an ice breaker session at an education class organised by Africa Diabetes Alliance 1 st November 2019 marked exactly 2 years since I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At diagnosis, I didn’t have knowledge or any idea what I was going to have to deal with for the rest of my life. I remember the nurses trying to teach me the basic steps of managing diabetes which included which foods to eat, how to exercise and the amount of insulin I needed to survive for another day. However, the way the nurses were referencing each other, it was evident that they were sharing some hazy information. Being the new kid on

Written by Ankunda "Karen" Blessing I have been living with type 1 diabetes for a year now in Uganda. I was diagnosed on July 31st 2018 and the shock from that moment froze us. I did not   fully understand what diabetes was. I just thought managing it was a matter of eliminating sugar in my diet, taking medications and I'd be good to go! Alas, that wasn’t the case. It was not that simple. I was actually wrongly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes but lucky for me, it was corrected in a short time. Testing my blood sugar levels at work There after, a cousin of mine interacted with me and said she knows a friend who is a type 1 diabetic, and she introduced me to Edith Mukantwari and we talked in detail about diabetes. Being a nutritionist and diabetes educator, she really helped me understand a lot and I felt a lot more at ease knowing someone else out there had the same condition as mine. She proceeded to add me to the Africa Diabetes Alliance WhatsA

Written by Sarah Biyinzika At the Uganda Diabetes Association Annual Scientific Conference, 2019 I would like to welcome you once again to our Africa Diabetes Alliance blog. My name is Sarah Biyinzika and I come from Uganda. I am 26 years old and have been living with type 1 diabetes for 14 years now. I have come to realise that there is nothing like a perfect diabetic and trying to be one is simply asking for major frustration, but we can learn to understand how our food, bodies and medications work together to prevent high blood sugar and low blood sugar, and stay safe. However, if setbacks do happen, it is okay, and we should simply know how to solve the challenges that are bound to happen. I know, though, that there is such a thing as a bad diabetic and I believe I was once one. When I was diagnosed, apart from the basics like which insulin to take, the dose and what not to eat,   I wasn’t given much information and it didn’t occur to me that there was information that

Thursday, 20th June, 2019 Written by Mukantwari Edith Prudence A big and beautiful official welcome to our blog. We are so glad you are here. I hope that you have heard of Africa Diabetes Alliance ( A f DA ) before. However, in case you haven't, I hope that this serves as an introductory post to understanding our why and joining our patient empowerment efforts, and passion for developing and sharing resources to support the existing health structures in striving to improve the narrative of diabetes care for the better both within our country Uganda, and Africa at large. We believe that knowledge is potential power to help us make better health decisions, but true power lies in transforming that knowledge into action to make positive change happen. We hope that this can be a supportive, resourceful platform for us all as we take on our journeys of disarming diabetes together. A f DA: Unity in action against diabetes for a brighter future Whatever kind of diabetes we, or a f