On this World Diabetes Day, Direct Relief is pleased to announce a new collaboration with LifeScan, a medical product manufacturing company and corporate partner, in support of an extraordinary children’s diabetes support program, Life for a Child.
Founded in 2001 with support from the Australian Diabetes Council and HOPE Worldwide, the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child (LFAC) program provides financial and medical material assistance to medical institutions and agencies that provide diabetes services to children in developing countries.
The program, which has grown significantly over the past decade, now supports over 10,000 children and youth with diabetes in 39 countries.
According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), approximately 70,000 children develop type 1 diabetes worldwide every year. In resource-poor countries, many families are unable to afford or obtain the diabetes treatment-related medical goods needed to monitor and treat a diabetic child.
It is a heart wrenching situation for struggling families as they often must decide between purchasing the medical products needed to care for one child, and paying for other necessities to care for the entire family. Fortunately, assistance from LFAC is helping thousands of these families avoid making such an incredibly painful choice.
LFAC has supplied diabetes products, including insulin, to participating healthcare facilities and organizations for a number of years. In 2011, the medical device company, BD, began supporting the program by donating the insulin needles and syringes that Direct Relief distributed to LFAC recipients.
These products were considered to be a key addition to the medical material assistance component of the program, as previously many children had been forced to use, and reuse, poor quality syringes with large gauge needles.
LifeScan, which manufactures diabetes testing devices and supplies, has committed to donating a total of 1,288 glucometers and 999,750 glucose test strips to Direct Relief for distribution to LFAC recipient institutions and agencies in seven countries: Mali, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guyana, and Guatemala.
LifeScan’s donation of these vital products will help patients to better monitor and control their glucose levels making the overall program more comprehensive and effective. Providing these diabetes essentials to children in need enables their bodies to function properly and greatly reduces their overall level of fear and anxiety about living with the disease.
Direct Relief is honored to work with LifeScan to deliver diabetes testing product to LFAC supported facilities and organizations.
