Garissa three-year programme to fight diabetes ends

More partners have been urged to join in the fight against diabetes that remains rampant in Northern Kenya.

Barack Odero, Safaricom foundation trustee, said the challenge of addressing diabetes was huge and one that needs as many partners on board.

He was attending a ceremony to mark the end of the three-year diabetic programme done by Safaricom foundation in partnership with the  Garissa county and Goldstar Kenya.

In 2019, the telecommunication giant partnered with Garissa  to explore means and ways of bridging the gap in type 1 diabetes.

Odero said the programme comes to an end this month with the foundation having invested Sh120 million in infrastructure and material support.

The foundation set up a modern child friendly diabetic clinic at the Garissa Referral Hospital.

“As this programme comes to an end, we can look back with pride at the work we have done.We thank our partners for support especially through community mobilisation," Odero said.

"The intention of the programme was to improve early detection systems in managing diabetes, improve the comprehensive care and management of diabetes in children," he said.

"We also aimed to provide a strong backbone for the healthcare systems to manage, monitor and provide services concerning Type 1 diabetes,” he said. 

“This kind of challenges have become so rampant in this part of the country. They are ones you don’t overcome alone," he said.

"We need both public and private partnership to be able to do the kind of interventions that we have managed in Garissa.” 

Odero revealed that in the last three years, over 5,000 children and youth under 21 years have been impacted by Safaricom foundation’s Children with diabetes programme.

The programme  entails early detection and screening, as well as management of Type 1 diabetes.

He said 439 children are continuously receiving diabetes commodities such as insulin and syringes for management and care.

Some 60 community health volunteers enrolled in the programme.

County health executive Roble Nuno expressed his concern at the surging numbers of people with diabetic conditions in the county.

He said  even though the programme was coming to an end, the county will make sure that it is not disrupted and that the children who are on treatment continue getting the services

Among the things that have been attributed to the increased number of non-communicable diseases like diabetes are poor lifestyle, lack of proper diet and prevalence of obesity.

According to the Ministry of Health, about half a million Kenyans may have diabetes type one, 60 per cent of that number have never tested.

(Edited by Francis Wadegu)