In April 2023 I will be travelling to South Africa with a team of
fellow type 1 teenagers and diabetes health care professionals from across the East of England.

We will be travelling to South Africa to attend a diabetes education camp with children and young people with type 1 diabetes from across the country. Access to diabetes education and care for young people in South Africa  can be very limited and so we are hoping that by raising money to run this education camp we will provide them with an opportunity to come together to learn about how to become independent in the management of diabetes as we share with each other experiences of what it is like to grow up with type 1 in our two different cultures.

We will also be helping to run and deliver a teaching symposium for health care professionals from across South Africa about the management of type 1 diabetes in childhood. We hope that by providing greater access to education we will be able to improve outcomes for children and young people with type 1 diabetes in South Africa.

As a team of young people we will also be working with our type 1 friends in South Africa to help develop and promote an online social media community for children and young people with type 1 from across the country. This will be a place where they can come and share experiences and support and access peer to peer education that they might find hard to access in person as they live in a remote location. This is something that we take for granted in the UK but is so vital for the physical and mental well being for us as young people with type 1.

As a team of young people we have been tasked with raising the funds needed to deliver the symposium and run the diabetes education camp - any donation that you can give will go directly to help improving the lives and outcomes for children and young people with type 1 diabetes across South Africa.

We have each been set the target of raising £3000 but will be doing this in chunks of £500 to make the fundraising challenge more manageable.

Thank you for your support

#botswanadiabetespartnershipproject2023