Innovative methods to protect students from diabetes

The Friends of Diabetes Association, one of the health-promoting organisations under the Health Education Department of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, organised, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Prevention, MoHAP, a training workshop for the female nurses of schools participating in the “Superhero Program”, one of the Association’s annual initiatives aiming to raise community awareness about diabetes, how to deal with it, and ways of prevention.

Held at Al Qassimi Hospital for Women & Children on Thursday in the presence of Khawla Al-Haj, Head of the Friends for Diabetes Association and Dr. Ilham Al-Amiri, Vice-President of the Association, the workshop presented by Dr. Ilham Al-Amiri, Vice-President of the Association and a number of doctors in Al Qasimi Hospital included training female coordinators and nurses on innovative methods of educating diabetic and non-diabetic students on how to prevent and coexist with diabetes.

The workshop also shed light on the rights of diabetic children to enjoy their daily life similarly to their counterparts, in addition to providing health tips on ways to treat hypoglycemia, how to use blood glucose testing devices, urine test strips to check blood sugar and ketones in the blood, and how to inject insulin and glucagon.

Khawla Al-Haj, Head of the Friends for Diabetes Association, said that organizing this workshop is part of the Association’s keenness on maintaining the health of citizens and residents of all ages and encouraging them to follow healthy lifestyles to minimize chances of developing diabetes.

This is in line with the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, and in accordance with the Emirate of Sharjah and UAE Vision to develop the health system, in order to achieve a disease-free and happy society as per the UAE Centennial 2071.

“This year’s programs and initiatives will be focusing on raising health awareness about diabetes among school students and teaching them new skills to be able to adopt healthy lifestyles in the future. This is in addition to training the female coordinators and nurses in schools in how to care about diabetic students and enhancing the skills of those nurses about innovative ways that help protect school students from this disease,” Al-Haj explained.

While thanking MoHAP and schools participating in the ‘Superhero Program”, Al-Haj underlined that the role of our partners is not only limited to the awareness aspect but it also covers the assistance of diabetic patients and their families through the provision of all types of support.

Expressing their appreciation to Friends of Diabetes Association for organizing this workshop, the participating nurses commended the importance of the event and its role in providing the latest scientific developments of diabetes and ways of preventing it, in addition to how to deal with diabetic students and to follow up on their health status.

The workshop also focused on how to rapidly handle cases with low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).

Worth mentioning that the “Superhero Program” in 2019 has managed to raise the awareness and educate 13749 students from 15 public and private schools from students of the second and third categories, in addition to 6 centers for children in the Emirate of Sharjah on how to deal with diabetes and ways to prevent it and encourage them to follow healthy lifestyles.

Separately, the Emirates Red Crescent Authority, ERC, Medical Centre in Sharjah provided medical services to 44,597 patients by the end of 2019, taking the number of beneficiaries of its free medical services since its establishment in the last quarter of 2008 to the end of December 2019 to some 391,803 patients.

Abdullah Ghanem Al Muhairi, Director of the ERC Branch in the emirate of Sharjah, announced that the branch is extremely proud of the integral role it plays in providing high standard free medical services to a wide segment of beneficiaries.