Help Save Lives and Improve Diabetes Care in Sierra Leone 💙🇸🇱

In April 2024, led by the DSN Forum UK - https://www.diabetesspecialistnurseforumuk.co.uk/, - a team of UK healthcare professionals travelled to Sierra Leone, joining forces with Dr. Veronica Sawicki, GP and founder of this incredible charity.

Our mission: to deliver much-needed diabetes care and education in a country where basic medicines and healthcare resources are scarce.

Thanks to your generosity, we raised over £3,000 to fund an additional diabetes nurse in Madina, a village desperately in need of trained healthcare professionals. This nurse will be saving lives every day in an area with few healthcare options.

However, the situation remains pretty awful. Poverty, lack of funds, and a shortage of clinics and appropriately trained healthcare professionals make diabetes a death sentence for many. People are often forced to travel for days, using uncomfortable and costly transport methods (that often cost most of their salaries), just to reach clinics that can offer basic care, advice, and medications. The lack of essential resources and support makes it nearly impossible for many to survive.

Type 2 diabetes is also rampant, with few resources to manage it. Patients rely on charity to obtain much needed medications, while others turn to dangerous, unproven remedies. With very few trained professionals, people are left with little more than harmful advice that can be fatal.

The positive spirit of the people in Sierra Leone is both humbling and inspiring – they are really trying; however, fact remains, the country is still recovering from a dreadful civil war, and its healthcare system is fragile. Families face impossible choices—buying insulin/meds and life saving care or food and education. The need for help is urgent!

In November 2025, we return to continue our mission. We will provide medications, dressings and much more, as well as train healthcare workers, and educate communities on proper diabetes care. Your donation will directly support:

• Supplying insulin and essential medications to those living with diabetes.

• The Help Madina Hardships Fund providing support for those unable to afford things like food and transport to clinics– there is no Welfare State in Sierra Leone!

• Training local healthcare teams to improve care and management.

• Raising awareness and dispelling harmful myths about diabetes.

• Strengthening local diabetes associations for long-term impact.

Every donation, no matter the size, will make a difference. Together, we can save lives and bring hope to Sierra Leone.

Thanks so much!

Amanda Williams, Elaine Allerton, Helen Towers, Alex Prins-Mills and Lisa Kelly