DDI commemorates World Diabetes Day
Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI), a leading campaigner for diabetes awareness in Kuwait, held an informative event to commemorate World Diabetes Day on Thursday, 17 November, 2016 at its premises. The event allowed visitors to consult with diabetes specialists and dietitians as well as gather healthy information from booths that explained various facts of diabetes and promoted healthy lifestyle modification. Around 1000 guests attended the event underlining the interest in Kuwait to prevent and manage this dangerous lifestyle disease.
Many of the booths at the event were about educating visitors on proper dietary habits, sage physical activities and oral health. At this event, there were informative booths offered by the Institute, some of which provided blood glucose testing, funduscopic and podiatric exams, as well as nutritional, educational and fitness consultations by the Institute’s experts. In addition, the event hosted booths by the Kuwait Diabetes Society, Oral Health Program (Ministry of Health), LOYAC, Kuwait Finance House amongst others, providing assistance to people living with diabetes and the general public.
The primary goal of the event is to prevent the complications of diabetes in people with diabetes through raising awareness about the complications, and empowering those affected by diabetes to proactively take control of their diabetes and improve their quality of life. The main key messages were to take control of blood sugar, watch your cholesterol, keep blood pressure in check, don’t forget your kidneys, look out for your eyes and examine your feet.
The event reflected an exciting environment for everyone, and the activities were tailored towards young children through fun shows featuring mascots, a magic show, and other educational activities. “Holding such events and activities stems from Dasman Diabetes Institute’s mission statement, where health promotion and awareness are a priority for the Institute. Since its establishment by the Kuwait Foundation of the Advancement of Sciences in 2006, the Institute organizes and takes part in many events and campaigns annually to shed light on diabetes and health in general. This is in accordance with the Institute’s belief that, ‘Prevention is better than cure’”, Dr Qais Al-Duwairi, Director-General of Dasman Diabetes Institute said.