STRIPS FOR KIDS

The only thing worse than watching a child suffer, is knowing that it is preventable. If a child is lucky enough to live in Canada, diabetes is a very manageable condition . If the child lives in Vietnam they will likely suffer from debilitating complications of this condition.

Monitoring and maintaining blood sugar levels is essential for a diabetic child to stay healthy. High blood sugar causes eye damage resulting in blindness, nerve damage resulting in amputations and kidney damage resulting in death. Blood sugar monitoring is done by poking the finger and placing a drop of blood on a special “strip” that changes colour to reveal the amount of sugar in the blood. In many Western countries we use a small electronic monitor but this is much more expensive.

In Vietnam, only 10% of families can afford to regularly monitor their children’s blood sugar. As a result, 74% of diabetic children in Vietnam will experience some form of complication within 6 years of their diagnosis.  What can we do to change this appalling situation?

Until JULY 31, 2008 we accepted donations to buy blood sugar monitoring strips for kids in Vietnam. A donation of $13 can purchase 100 blood glucose test strips, which will allow a child in Vietnam to monitor their blood sugar for 2 months. By raising $1455 we purchased enough blood glucose strips to allow 112 children to check their blood for 2 months!

Our efforts are in support of the work of  CLAN (Australia) and the International Diabetes Federation “Life for a Child” program, who are assisting diabetes programs in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The strips we have donated will be distributed through the Children’s Hospitals in these cities. We will be visiting these hospitals on our trip and will provide you with an update on our website.

We extend our gratitude to National Diagnostics Products in Sydney, Australia who provided the Betachek Visual Blood Glucose Test Strips at a reduced cost, so that our donations will go farther.