Presenting new epidemiological and diabetes-related impact data.
Presenting new epidemiological and diabetes-related impact data.
The Egyptian Diabetes Association (EDA) is the principal national non-governmental diabetes caring organisation in Egypt. It was established in 1964 and became IDF member in 1975 and was the founder of the IDF East Mediterranean and the Middle East Region in 1985.
Activities of the EDA cover all the Governorates in Egypt, and it has more than 24000 registered members all through the country. According to its constitution, all persons with diabetes in Egypt are legible to be enrolled, free of charge, in its membership.
Membership of the EDA includes besides the diabetic patients a great number of physicians at different levels and categories of specialisation in diabetes, as well as nurses and other members of the health care team, and also social service volunteers.
The mission of the EDA is to provide advocacy and to give a better life for people with diabetes, to improve diabetes care and to provide diabetes education and guidance to prevent complications.
Diabetes education is universally recognized to be a basic element of proper diabetes care. A very outstanding achievement of the EDA in the field of diabetes education has been made during the past two decades.It was realized that limited successes in the field of patient education, and also the education of health caring personnel was the result of poor professional performance by those who play the role of educators. Consequently, a comprehensive and high standard course for promoting the professional performance of the diabetes educators, that covers all aspects of providing knowledge, skills and changing attitudes was designed by highly qualified education experts.This course on: "Development of Professional Education skills" was carried out in the form of a series of workshops that toured the different provinces in Egypt. Furthermore, the same touring workshop was held in different countries of the MENA Region.This was done in collaboration with the national diabetes associations in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Libya and Sudan.
Another outstanding success in the mission of the EDA was the creation of models of "National Diabetes Programmes" in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations Resolution on Diabetes 2006 to establish national programmes in all countries. The aim of the EDA was to create a national programme that suits the MENA region and that could be remodelled to suit the local national socioeconomic conditions in each one of its countries. This process considers the availability of resources and the limitations in each specific country in the region
EDA is planning to celebrate the 2013 WDD through the following activities:
Prof. Morsi Arab "The Egyptian Diabetes Association is a member of ID since 1985 and one of the few members from 5 countries ( Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Iran & Pakistan) which consisted and founded the IDF Region under the name of Middle East Mediterranean (EMME). The Egyptian Diabetes Association was not only among the founders but was always playing a key and leading role in the development of the IDF Region. We feel strongly committed to the cause of fighting against diabetes since the national establishment of the association in Egypt in the nineteen sixties. The affiliation of the EDA to the IDF at about 20 years after its national existence not only opened the gates for international relations with other member associations with the same mission all over the world but also gave our association a great moral support that enhanced our performance at national level.
We certainly gained along the many years of active membership into the IDF, more experience and wider vision about the problem of diabetes and its combat all over the world.
In return, individual members from the EDA played very active and positive role in the guidance of newer members from the region who joined the IDF one after the other along through past three decades.At the same time, we have to recognize that we gained and are still gaining a lot from the IDF global and highly prestigious organization through its diverse programs, multinational projects, specialized task forces activities, workshops conferences etc. and we highly value our affiliation to the IDF and our contribution into its noble objectives."