Best explained by a News Alert I recently wrote for the Oxford Health Alliance, a London-based global alliance to tackle the epidemic of global chronic diseases.
Nineteen young people from around the world met on June 7-8, 2006, in Washington DC to learn about the global diabetes epidemic, and to formulate a plan of action to spread awareness of diabetes around the world.
The goal of the Unite for Diabetes campaign is to place diabetes on the global agenda, to increase awareness of the disease and patient education, and to address poverty as a main obstacle to access to quality healthcare and insulin. Also, the campaign seeks to get a UN Resolution on Diabetes passed on World Diabetes Day, 14 November 2007. The campaign has two main parts – a top-down approach targeting major policymakers around the world, and a bottom-up approach aiming to make 1 billion people will be made aware of diabetes and the campaign.
The Youth Panel’s contribution to the campaign is to spread awareness amongst this targeted 1 billion people, by creating National Youth Panels of diabetes advocates in their respective home countries, and through the internet, especially blogs. One additional goal is to empower young people with diabetes by giving them a voice and allowing them to network with important players in health and development issues throughout the world.
The Youth Panel was sponsored by Novo Nordisk. To promote an international dialogue, countries represented at the meeting were the United States, Denmark, United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Spain, France, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, El Salvador and China. For a young perspective on the issues, youth panelists were aged 18 to 32. Fourteen young members of the panel have diabetes, while three do not. Also present at the meeting was Clare Rosenfeld, the 20-year-old inventor of the campaign. The meeting culminated in a networking event with AYUDA, a successful organization that has been promoting diabetes awareness, education and community in the Americas since the early 1990s, using youth as agents for change.
The Unite for Diabetes symbol, a blue circle representing unity and the color of the sky which unites us all, will be used to spread awareness of diabetes, similar to the way in which red ribbons promote AIDS awareness and recognition as a public health priority.
Karen Siegel, Youth Panelist
