Skip to main content

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

Image
By

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 ordeal on our WhatsApp group. As a group, we were mortified by this treatment and wanted desperately to help him. However, we were limited in what we could accomplish at the time.

We had had the good fortune of a peer that had joined our group mid-2020 and he had become a resourceful and valuable team member. Josh had single-handedly taken on the task of supporting members in distress due to various financial challenges and was supporting people buy insulin, syringes, food, school fees and so much more. Towards the end of 2020, four more individuals, who prefer to remain anonymous at this time, joined the group and helped support even more people.

Upon hearing of Ola's distress, Josh came up with a suggestion of creating an official card that could help patients by sharing their medical information, current medications with instructions on how to treat a severe hypoglycaemia episode. The idea quickly garnered interest, with members suggesting what kind of information the card should have, how it should be presented and one of our members, Simon took to designing and printing cards. This project was named the "Olayemi" Project in honor of his bravery in telling a difficult story and for the role he played in inspiring such brave actions from our community.

When the cards were ready, we were faced with a challenge of shipping them to people that needed them. Together, Josh and Simon organized funds to ship the cards, which escalated costs significantly, but we were altogether able to reach 54 individuals in six African countries including Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, and Zambia.

Since then, the cards have been valuable to many of us, as they present proof that authorities take seriously. They enabled many of us navigate challenging conversations with police as we travelled to access healthcare, buy medications or blood glucose monitoring strips during the lockdowns. They enabled one of us to get assistance in a government building during a hypoglycemic event as they waited for a driving permit. The cards have been conversation starters with schools taking care of young people living with diabetes. The card creates opportunities for us to speak up for ourselves and in the event that this is not possible, say during severe hypoglycaemia when we are unconscious, it speaks up for us. It has been a powerful tool in saving our lives and seeking assistance or accommodations where necessary. This story highlights just what can be accomplished when a community of people come together to address a shared goal. We surely plan on reviving the Olayemi project as we move forward and grow, and your support in sharing this story is a great first step in enabling us do so. Thank you.


Labels:
Location: Uganda

Comments

Post a Comment

Recommended post

IDF AFRICA PEER EDUCATORS TRAINING; PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT IN DIABETES EDUCATION

By
PART ONE; RESEARCH, MONITORING, AND EVALUATION The question of WHY is what separates the wise from the foolish, and this is why it is necessary to carry out research, to answer a particular question, and to understand observations.  Research should be;       Objective       Methodical and       Systematic. Research can be of three types; quantitative in which one measures the what, qualitative in which one tries to find out why, or mixed methods in which the researchers want to know both the what and the why. It is only when you ask yourself the question WHY that you can start on the research journey. The research done must be scientific and fact-filled to avoid misleading information.   When the research process is over, it is important to share the information to give back through knowledge sharing. In this, monitoring and evaluation are crucial as the researcher needs to find out the impact a...
Post a Comment
Read more

FRIO Insulin Cooling Wallets: A game changer for insulin safety

By
Mrs. Annie Baganzi handing over 14 Frio insulin colling wallets to Dr. Catherine N.at Nsambya Hospital Kindly allow me to explain the value of the Frio insulin cooking wallets by taking you back to high school biology. When the food we eat is digested, any carbohydrates consumed are digested or broken down into glucose within the digestive system. The glucose is then absorbed into the bloodstream for distribution to the body cells that need it to provide energy. Insulin is a hormone that functions to facilitate glucose uptake from the blood into the body cells. Without insulin, this process breaks down, causing high blood sugars, a classic symptom of Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Injecting insulin is one of the therapies for managing DM. Being protein in nature, insulin needs to be produced, transported, stored and generally maintained under strict temperature control to retain its functionality and effectiveness. The recommended temperature for storage and transport of insulin is b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Diabetes Education 101

By
  Attendees of the A f DA education event on 26th Jan 2023 On the 28th of January, 2023, a cohort of 11 members met for a diabetes education event hosted by Africa Diabetes Alliance at Satellite Hotel on Kisaasi-Kyanja road from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. The event comprised two separate sessions, the first one facilitated by Mr. Michael Tirwomwe, a registered dentist and lecturer of Biochemistry at Kabale University, who is also a person living with type 1 diabetes for over 35 years, while the second session was facilitated by Mr. Rodney Sewanyana, an accountant by profession who is pursuing ACCA certification and has lived with T1D since November, 2017. Beginning of session one facilitated by Mr. Michael Tirwomwe The first session was very interactive, engaging and informative and delved into; How diabetes comes about Prevention of diabetes mellitus The differences between type 1 diabetes, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes Causes and risk factors Signs and symptoms ...
Post a Comment
Read more