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