Children with type 1 diabetes and officials at the Al Tahadi Challenging Camp.
By Isabel Ovalle
For a young child, dealing with diabetes can be tough. Kids are compelled to introduce changes in their lifestyles such as exercise or a mandatory healthy diet and, at a certain age, it is impossible for children to see their peers eat candy or chocolate on a daily basis without getting a watery mouth.
This sickness affects an unusually high number of people in Qatar. All of those affected with diabetes can turn to the Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF). The association provides useful and up to date information to help patients understand the reality of the disease, ways of living with it and proper care. This organisation works in collaboration with schools to keep a record of pupils that have diabetes in order to invite them to participate in their activities.
With these objectives in mind, QDA has organised the Al Tahadi Challenging Camp for the third time. This camp helps children with type 1 diabetes cope with their sickness. A group of 30 boys with ages 12 to 16 from Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait took part in this year’s edition that began on the 6th of October and concluded on the 11th. During this camp, youngsters learn about the importance of controlling their blood sugar levels through a healthy lifestyle, with the supervision of the medical team of the association.
The manager of Challenge Youth Camp and ambassador for diabetic people in Qatar, Mohammed Alsaadi, explained to The Peninsula that in this camp, kids with diabetes learn to test their blood sugar, take insulin, control what they eat and exercise, among other things. Activities include football, taekwondo and swimming.
Thirteen-year-old Mageg was diagnosed with diabetes four years ago. He travelled from UAE to Doha for the camp and he has learned new things and practised others he already knew thanks to his sister. Ahmed is also 13 and travelled from UAE as well, his diabetes was diagnosed in 2001. He has “no problem” coping with it, but he admits that it can be hard to see other kids enjoy pleasures like candy, so he’s very happy to meet children like him and to have a chance to play and become skilled at self attendance.
Zain Al Yehri, media coordinator for the camp and QDA’s special programmes assistant, said that education about this disease should start at home, in order to help the child become “a friend of diabetes”. He encouraged parents to get involved in their children’s condition and never lose sight of its importance.
Professionals working at the camp to teach children about diabetes include a medical team, a health educator, nutritionists and volunteers. Organisers for Challenge Youth Camp, which was held in the Youth Hostel Association, keep in touch with schools and notify them about activities of interest, such as another camp that will take place in February. QDA will also put together activities for the World Diabetes Day on November 15.
QDA was founded in 1995 and it joined Qatar Foundation in 1999. It works with other partners in the Health Care Field in Qatar to combat this major health epidemic, by providing innovative patient care, working carefully on Diabetes Prevention and providing brochures and information about diabetes, its management and prevention.
Doctor Sharoud Al Jundi Matthis, Program Manager at QDA, explained that the prevalence of diabetes as of September 2012 is of 16.7 percent in the Qatari adult population between 20 and 79 years of age. Worldwide statistics points that 5 percent of the total number of people with diabetes are type 1 which is widespread in children.
“Unfortunately, added the Doctor, we now have a large population of adolescents who have type 2 diabetes, which traditionally used to be prevalent only in the adult population. We do not have statistics for children in Qatar but we believe the predominance follows the international proportion, 5 percent of total population of Qataris with diabetes”.
Even though there are no exact statistics for type 1 diabetes in Qatar, experts from QDA don’t think the number of children with this disease is much higher than the average worldwide. The International Diabetes Federation Atlas shows the numbers for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region as a whole: 63,000 children have diabetes type 1.
Nevertheless, Doctor Sharoud pointed out that the number of people with diabetes type 2 in Qatar is much higher than the International average, “it is actually twice the international average worldwide of 8 per cent of the adult population”. The type 1 however, is not much higher; with Europe and North America having much higher numbers than the MENA region.
Doctor Al-Jundi informed as well that “the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the adolescents of Qatar is growing at a very high rate and everyone in the diabetes field is looking at a strategy to stem that tide. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, added to a family history of type 2 diabetes is a very high risk of developing it and we are trying very hard to spread the awareness and work with the youth in schools to lower that risk”.
The Peninsula
