Africa Diabetes Leadership Forum

In early October, Project HOPE’s South Africa country director and headquarters program officer for chronic disease, attended the high level African Diabetes Leadership Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting was hosted by leaders in global diabetes and brought together academics, policy makers, government officials, researchers and non-profit organizations to discuss the burgeoning situation of diabetes on the continent of Africa.

Results from this forum will feed into the United Nations’ meeting on chronic disease, to be held in September 2011. As the numbers of people with diabetes grows and the impact of the disease takes its toll on individuals, families and country economies, this important area of health has come to the international forefront. Many African countries are facing a rising tide of diabetes as people move to urban areas. Across income levels, people are adopting new lifestyles with decreases in activity, consuming more convenience foods and lacking access to clean water and fresh foods.

The experts reported on the impact of diabetes on the health care systems, economic productivity, infectious disease like tuberculosis and HIV, and the alarming death rates due to complications such as heart disease, amputation and kidney disease. Everyone was in consensus that action must be taken and it must be taken quickly to stem the tide of this serious health care challenge.

Story by Project HOPE's Charlotte Block, MS, RD, Program Officer - Global Health Chronic Disease/Nutrition,who spent World Diabetes Day visiting HOPE program sites in India.

In Honor of World Diabetes Day, Help Support Project HOPE's Health Education Programs Around the Globe.

Preparing to Launch HOPE Centre South Africa

Over the last few weeks, Project HOPE South Africa has been busy designing and putting together a new and exciting project that we are hoping to launch very soon. The project is called the HOPE Centre. It will become a centre of excellence for community prevention, early detection and treatment of non-communicable diseases with a focus on diabetes, based in Johannesburg.

As part of the preparation work, Project HOPE approached the Director of Blue Parrot – Debbie Roberts to help us design a brochure that encapsulated the heart of the project that we could send out to interested parties to raise funds and generate support for the project.

The team at Blue Parrot was amazing, and within a short time, we had this wonderful HOPE Centre brochure designed and printed and thanks to Blue Parrot's generosity, at no cost to Project HOPE.

As a token of our appreciation we held a little thank you celebration today with the staff to thank them for their work and to keep them up to date with how the project is developing.

Blue Parrot is just one of a number of partners that have come on board with Project HOPE South Africa to help launch this new project.

Please check back soon to find out more details about the launch date of the project and to hear more about the various partners that Project HOPE South Africa will be working with.

Thanks for reading..Stefan.

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Health Education Screening in Mozambique

Check out our newest video from one of Project HOPE's Village Savings and Loans (VSL) groups in Guija District, Mozambique. Our VSL programs not only incorporate savings techniques but lifesaving health education. In this video, HOPE staff is conducting health pre-tests to determine the groups’ level of understanding around certain health topics. HOPE then takes this information and tailors our health education program around the results. Towards the end of the project, we will conduct a post test and compare the results. This encourages the groups as they can see where they have improved, and also helps Project HOPE in showing us how effective we have been in our training and what we need to do to improve it.

Thanks for visiting -Stefan

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Village Savings and Loans Groups In Action

Check out our video from my recent visit to one of Project HOPE's Village Savings and Loans groups in Guija District, Mozambique. It is so inspiring to watch the VSL groups master the savings techniques that HOPE has taught them. Everybody was excited about putting a little bit of money away each week knowing that it was safe and that it would benefit them at the end of the year when all the money is divided up.

Thanks for visiting and please check back soon for another video from the Guija District VSL group. -Stefan

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Visiting our VSL groups in Guija District - Mozambique

A couple of weeks ago I was able to head out into the bush with our staff to visit our Village Savings and Loans groups in Guija District, Mozambique. This was a really neat experience for me firstly because I have never been to Guija before, and secondly I was anxious to see how our new project was getting on and if it was making the impact that we believed it would when we designed it.

Driving into meet one of the groups you realise how far away you are from anything – town, tar road, shops etc. These people live off the land and off remittances that are sent from family members working in South Africa. The thing you notice right away is that there are not too many men around the place. This is because the majority are working legally or illegally in South Africa.

Life for these women consists of getting up early each morning and fetching water at a well which also serves as a meeting point to chat with friends and neighbours. Then its back to prepare some breakfast and off to the fields to tend to crops.

Guija, unlike neighbouring Chokwe is not as fertile and so its much harder to produce enough food to eat. The afternoons are spent around the house, looking after the children, maybe collecting some firewood and attending VSL group meetings before cooking dinner and going to bed.

It was wonderful to sit with some of our VSL groups and watch them master the savings techniques that Project HOPE has taught them. Everybody was excited about putting a little bit of money away each week knowing that it was safe and that it would benefit them at the end of the year when all the money is divided up.

Another reason for my trip was to conduct some health pre-tests. Basically this involves asking a set of questions to each group to determine their level of understanding around certain health topics.

Project HOPE then takes this information and is able to use it to highlight certain areas that need improving. We tailor our health education and then towards the end of the project we will conduct a post test which is the same set of questions and compare the results. This then encourages the groups as they can see where they have improved, and also helps Project HOPE in showing us how effective we have been in our training and what we need to do to improve it.

Check back for some videos from my visit in the coming days!

Pfizer Fellow Joins HOPE in South Africa

Project HOPE is privileged to welcome Michael Pastoor and his family to South Africa. Michael is participating in Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows Program where Pfizer loans its most valuable asset, its people, to non-profit organisations such as Project HOPE.

Each year, Pfizer deploys up to 50 talented colleagues to work on high-impact, capacity building projects. The focus is on sustainability, so Fellows are selected in part for their strengths in teaching and training and their willingness to see their work carried on by local teams.

Michael has joined the Project HOPE South Africa team specifically to help establish Project HOPE’s signature program in South Africa – The HOPE Centre – a community based initiative focusing on the holistic prevention, early detection, care and treatment of people with or at risk of developing a chronic disease.

Thanks for reading and please check back soon for more information on this exciting new development here in South Africa. -Stefan

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Update on Bikes for Malawi TB Program

I wanted to provide an update in regards to raising funds for volunteer bicycles to support our TB program in Malawi. The amount we have raised to date was enough to purchase 16 bicycles and 32 spare tires and 32 spare hubs for replacement.

We at Project HOPE and the people of Malawi are very, very grateful for this donation which will help improve the lives of our poor brothers and sisters in the rural communities. It is no small gift to us but one that carries the giving hearts of the people of America. I want to thank those who donated to the Bikes for Malawi campaign and ask you to rejoice with us that the work of the many people who have volunteered to serve others for no pay is going to be a lot easier. This will motivate them and encourage them a little more.

Read More about our community volunteers at work.

We are very grateful for your personal involvement and the time and energy you invested in this activity. Once again thank you and may God Bless you.

Regards,

Rodrick Nalikungwi, Country Director
Project HOPE Malawi

The goal of the Bikes for Malawi campaign is 60 bikes total, one for each village TB testing site in Malawi. Please consider donating today to help provide this invaluable resource to all of our village testing sites. The bikes, along with spare parts are $168.00 each. Can you help us raise enough money for 44 more bikes? Every donation counts.

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