Physical Health Dominican Republic Project #8901

Camp for children with Type 1 Diabetes in the DR

by AYUDA, Inc

Camp for children with Type 1 Diabetes in the DR

Project Report | Nov 15, 2012
A video insight into diabetes camp 2012!

By Merith Basey | Director of International Operations

This summer Diabetes Hands Foundation joined forces with AYUDA and our partners Aprendiendo a Vivir in Santo Domingo for the Big Blue Test. The Big Blue Test is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation that encourages people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14-20 minutes, test again and share their experience. During this summer's program for children and youth with type 1 diabetes, as well as their parents, rising young leaders along with the support of the AYUDA staff and volunteers, Campo Amigo Dominicano came together as a community to all do 'The Big Blue Test'. Children and adults alike learned that, for the most part, after 14 or more minutes of exercise their blood sugars were lowered. A simple teachable moment for all.

Please take look at this short, high-energy video of our activities just completed in time for November 14th, World Diabetes Day...

http://bit.ly/S08QsM

To commemorate World Diabetes Day, Aprendiendo a Vivir met in el Parque Independencia in Santo Domingo with volunteers and supporters. People were welcomed with blue balloons, T-shirts and big smiles to get together, exercise and unite as a community. Aprendiendo a Vivir also launched a TV campaign to encourage the Dominican TV personalities to all wear the UN Blue Circle pin to show their support for the campaign and encourage others to learn more about diabetes, which affects an estimated 366 million people globally.

This year, to commemorate World Diabetes, AYUDA is collaborating with Aprendiendo a Vivir (AAV) and Caring and Living as Neighbors (CLAN), an organization based in Australia that works to improve the lives of children living with chronic health conditions in resource poor countries including Vietnam, to connect young people living with diabetes via a “Global Art Works Exchange.”

Inspired by the World Diabetes Day postcard exchange, young people living with diabetes in the US and Dominican Republic have filled out short online questionnaires which speak to their personal experiences of living with diabetes. These questionaires will be translated by CLAN into Vietnamese and presented to children and adolescents at a meeting of a youth diabetes club in Ho Chi Minh City later in the month. The children and young people in Vietnam will then create their own cards, which will be shared with everyone who participates.

We hope this experience will be inspiring and empowering to everyone involved, and will be a great way to connect globally with people living with diabetes on World Diabetes Day.

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Jul 17, 2012
Field Update: Santo Domingo Diabetes Advocacy

By Merith Basey | Director of International Operations

June 17th saw the arrival of 10 new AYUDA volunteers into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic led by AYUDA staff and three Volunteer Mentors. This year broke a record for the greatest number of AYUDA volunteers living with type 1 diabetes - more than 50%! AYUDA's youth to youth model has served not only to inspire, educate and support children with diabetes in Latin America but also to inspire the AYUDA volunteers with diabetes to improve their own diabetes control.

The volunteers hit the ground running with various diabetes 101 review sessions in preparation for the registration meeting held in AYUDA's partner organization Aprendiendo A Vivir (AAV). Volunteers met and pre-registered many of AAV's children and youth with type 1 diabetes from across the country for the family diabetes education sessions held on Sunday 24th June at Colegio Consa in Santo Domingo. The sessions were aimed at children from the foundation and their families - in total the family day saw over 165 people in attendance. Preparation for each of the activities was planned during the days prior to the family day. AYUDA volunteers worked closely with six local medical students - each group was responsible for preparing educational and dynamic activities in accordance with specific diabetes education learning objectives as defined by Sandra Jaquez, Director of Education at Aprendiendo A Vivir. The activities were divided by age group - the green group took children up to the age of 8, the blue group from 9 to 13 and the yellow were the rising young leaders in diabetes, from 14 to 20 years of age. The children and young people all had mixed numbers of years living with diabetes and mixed experience but had been participating in the foundation activities for at least 12 months. Prior to the family day, the young leaders, medical students and AYUDA volunteers, met for a full day of pre-camp training to revise the camp protocols (along with Dr Morla, chief endocrinologist from the main children's hospital in Santo Domingo Robert Reid Cabral) and finalize preparations for the camp itself.

This year AYUDA and AAV were lucky to welcome a team of 5 young leaders from Haitian diabetes organization FHADIMAC based in Port au Prince. The group were lead by the President of the organization Dr Nancy Larco who was of immense support to the program. Not only did the mix of volunteers and organizations help to stengthen ties between organizations but also served to broaden the vision of volunteers and young leaders alike with regard to ideas for dynamic diabetes education activities. This year we also had a special visit from Manny Hernandez and some of his team from www.estudiabetes.org and the Big Blue Test. More updates to follow on this soon!

During the weekend of 30th June and the 1st July a total of 39 children and young people who had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the previous 12 months (or had recently joined Aprendiendo a Vivir) participated in diabetes education sessions led by Dominican youth leaders and AYUDA volunteers. Separate sessions were organized for the parents and siblings. Over 140 people attended the weekend in Santo Domingo. Campers and their parents were provided with additional testing strips and asked to test three times during the night and early morning, record their blood sugars and bring them to camp for review to enable better understanding of blood glucose control during the night (as well as allowing for possible dosis changes with the endocrinologists at camp).

The final days that the AYUDA spent in Santo Domingo were taken up with community outreach and home visits to participants at camp. The home visits not only serve as a method of increasing the links of families to the local foundation but also as follow-up from camp where key learning objectives could be reviewed in the home setting.

Preparations are already underway for the month of August which is 'Diabetes Month' in the Dominican Republic - where currently 15% of the population has diabetes.

Links:

Current photos from the DR program!

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Apr 5, 2012
Update from Santo Domingo, DR (March 2012)

By Merith Basey | Director of International Operations

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