Skip to main content

All about leveraging technology, food choices and nutrition to manage diabetes

The AfDA commemoration of World Diabetes Day, 2022

In honor of Diabetes Awareness month 2022, which is commemorated every November on the 14th, and also doubles as Frederick Banting's birthday, our community had first event gathering since the Covid-19 pandemic disruptions in programming and activities.

Many of our members had been through so much in the course of the pandemic such as some misinformation, fear and even newly diagnosed individuals who were navigating challenges in isolation. We knew that we all needed to meet up once again with the community for support, encouragement, camaraderie and building rapport.

We were very fortunate to have been offered a beautiful venue, free of charge at Concern for the Girl Child, a non-profit organization in Ntinda, Kampala, that supports young women and girls to get education and opportunities to thrive. The offer provided us a stress free, safe and open area for both children and adults to interact and we are forever thankful for their generosity.

After about a month of organizing with members who donated cash and food items for the event, we met up on Saturday 26th November 2022, and had a wonderful time talking, playing, sharing, listening, eating and generally doing life together.

Interactive nutrition and diabetes management tutorial led by Mr. Eddie Zziwa

During this time, we also had a wonderful education session on Continuous Glucose Monitoring delivered by Dr. Esther Gasana, a pharmacist by profession, as well as a practical tutorial on food choices and nutrition's role in health and blood sugar management ran by Mr. Eddie Zziwa, where we got to understand how the balance between these two important elements works.

We would love to appreciate Mr. Amon Ahebwa who catered our meal for the day. This program was a resounding success thanks to everyone that contributed, supported, and volunteered. We know future events will be even more wholesome as we support one another to disarm diabetes daily.

Comments

Recommended post

The "Olayemi" Project: The AfDA Emergency Medical Information Card

The AfDA Emergency Medical information cards   The year was 2020 and the world was in the throes of a global pandemic known as the Covid-19 pandemic. Our WhatsApp support group was growing as the world went digital, and people tried to find information and support to navigate through a scary time. Word on the street was that people living with Diabetes had the highest risk of dying from this new, unknown threat. Countries locked down and many things came to a standstill, even though our very real needs for food, medicine, connection and life kept on knocking. As we shared our challenges with navigating this new normal, one of our new members, Olayemi, told us that as he tried to travel in order buy insulin, he had met police who had searched him, found his insulin and syringes, and believing that they were illegal drugs, had confiscated them, and locked him in prison with no interest in listening to his pleas. Fortunately, they had let him go the next day and he informed us of his orde

Doing medicine to be able to disarm diabetes in my life and my community

Written by   Benjamin Mafale from Zambia My name is Benjamin, a 19 year old type 1 diabetes patient living in Zambia. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in mid-2016 at the age of 15. I came to know about my condition when I was in grade 11 in boarding at Kalomo secondary school. My experience started suddenly with some presentations of type 1 diabetes. In the unknown early symptoms of my condition polyuria (frequent urination), dehydration, extreme hunger and loss of weight. During that period, blood tests were carried out and when the results came out it was positive hyperglycemic (+++). This contributed to admission in the hospital for about 7 days for further investigations and monitoring of my blood sugars. While in the hospital I made some approach on diabetes management and got a nutritionist for diet advice. Later on after being advised on how to manage my condition with diet, medications and other ways, I was discharged to go home. Though it was something ne

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 26 was shocking

Written by Sharon Atim Before diagnosis I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes on February 27, 2013 at the tender age of 26. My immediate response was shock because until that day,  there was no one with diabetes  in my family. I'm still the only person living with it. Secondly, I did not know type 2 diabetes happened to people in their 20s when I was diagnosed. I thought it was something you got when you were a senior citizen over 60, so I felt alone for a while. I am sharing my story in the hope that someone out there will know that they are not the only ones going through this. I remember crying myself to sleep on many occasions asking myself how this monster disease could befall me; but I hope that I  can give someone else the comfort and courage they need, that I needed too, to keep fighting, for there is still so much they can do with their lives. My blood sugar was 27 mmol/L when I gained admission. I had blurred vision, frequent thirst and urination, I had lost