No child should die from diabetes
Changing Diabetes® in Children is a public-private partnership established in 2009. The partnership provides comprehensive care for children and young people living with type 1 diabetes in low- and middle-income countries. This includes free life-saving medicine and supplies for persons up to 25 years of age.

On this page, you can learn more about the positive impact the partnership is making. 

If you are a doctor, nurse or a parent, you can also explore our education, training and clinic materials

Type 1 diabetes (often referred to as childhood diabetes) is a lifelong, autoimmune condition which impairs the body’s ability to produce insulin. If left undiagnosed or untreated, excess glucose causes damage to organs which can result in severe health complications and, ultimately, in premature death. There is currently no prevention or cure and the only effective long-term treatment is multiple, daily injections of insulin.

Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic childhood illnesses. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates that globally, more than 1.2 million young people under 20 years have type 1 diabetes and approximately 184,100 new cases are diagnosed each year. However, in low-resource settings, children with type 1 diabetes are often misdiagnosed or lack access to adequate healthcare services to manage their condition. Changing Diabetes® in Children was established to bridge these critical gaps in care.

Education is critical to the successful management of diabetes1.

Changing Diabetes® in Children ensures that healthcare providers are equipped with suitable materials and resources to conduct patient education.

 

1 Phelan H, et al. Pediatr Diabetes. 2018; 19(S27):75–83.

A misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of diabetes can result in the death of a child with diabetes2.

Changing Diabetes® in Children collaborates with experts to develop and provide information about diabetes and the management of paediatric diabetes to healthcare professionals.

 

2 Munoz C, et al. Clinical diabetes: a publication of the American Diabetes Association. 2019;37 (3):276–281.

Type 1 diabetes is a complex disease, and children with the condition require accessible health facilities for regular check-ups and care3.

Changing Diabetes® in Children works with national ministries of health and local partners to establish a network of clinics and provide the best possible care coverage.

 

3 Brink SJ LW, et al. International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD);2010.

The only effective treatment for type 1 diabetes is insulin, administered by injection3,4.

Changing Diabetes® in Children focuses on strengthening cold chains and supply mechanisms for insulin and supplies in all partner countries. The partnership also donates insulin and supplies for all the children enrolled.

 

3 Brink SJ LW, et al. International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD);2010.

4 Danne T, et al. Pediatr Diabetes. 2018;19 Suppl 27:115–135.s

Patient handout booklet
The patient handout booklet provides diabetes education support for both children living with type 1 diabetes and their families.

Choose your preferred language and download the guidelines: 

Available languages:

Amharic  (6 MB) 

Arabic (Sudanese) (22MB)

Creole (Haitian) (16MB)

English  (5 MB) 

French  (5 MB)

Swahili  (5 MB)

Healthcare professional manual
It is our hope that it will be of great use to all healthcare professionals working with children and adolescents with diabetes in developing countries. 

The training manual supports education and training on important type 1 diabetes topics, including: 

  • Diagnosing type 1 diabetes in children
  • Treating type 1 diabetes
  • Talking to patients about type 1 diabetes 
  • The organisation of type 1 diabetes care

Available languages:

English (3 MB)

French  (3 MB)

Hindi  (4 MB)

Spanish (18MB)


Nurses’ Guideline booklet
 
The Nurses’ Guideline booklet shows how to use the diabetes dialogue posters. Based on advice from practitioners, it is suggested to use the materials together with the child over a span of visits.

Choose your preferred language and download the guidelines: 

Available languages:

English (18 MB) 

French  (5 MB)

Swahili  (5 MB)

Educational wall posters
The programme’s educational wall posters help to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and highlight some of the important messages about living with type 1 diabetes.

Choose from four different posters:

  • What is type 1 diabetes? 
  • The food pyramid
  • The signs of type 1 diabetes 
  • Where on the body to inject insulin?

Choose your preferred language and download the wall posters:

Amharic  (4 MB)

English  (1 MB)

French  (3 MB) 

Swahili  (1 MB) 


Diabetes dialogue poster

The diabetes dialogue poster is aimed for children aged 8-12. The poster contains a set of 17 dialogue visuals developed for use in a diabetes clinic to support the conversation between the healthcare professional, the child and the child's family or guardian.

The poster covers questions like:

  • Why do I need insulin? 
  • How much insulin should I take
  • Where do I inject it? How can I measure my blood glucose
  • What is hypo- and hyperglycaemia?
  • How to recognise them? 

Choose your preferred language and download the poster:

Amharic  (6 MB) 

English part 1  (4 MB)

English part 2 (3 MB)

French  (6 MB)

Swahili  (6 MB) 

2022 was a fantastic year for Changing Diabetes® in Children partnership, where we could finally travel and meet face-to-face again. But most importantly, it was a historic year for us. We enrolled more than 9,000 new children and expanded into more than 100 new clinics.

This year we also expanded into eight new countries; expanded access to Insulin pens; extended and strengthened collaboration with Roche and WDF; Collaborated with Harvard University in a Hackathon on digital solutions and a lancet paper publication of global type 1 diabetes incidence in children and adolescents; Released Diabetes Besties for digital patient education; Was recognised as best practice for strengthening local health systems through partnerships by Access to Medicine Index.

Read our 2022 year-in-review report for more details.

Recognising the lack of engaging patient education materials for children with type 1 diabetes, the partners behind Changing Diabetes® in Children joined forces to develop a series of short animation films called Diabetes Besties, consisting of 4 episodes within a didactic and comprehensive approach. The series can be used by parents, caregivers or healthcare professionals to teach children with diabetes what it is and how to manage it. Currently available on YouTube in English and French.

Learn more about the series and download the videos on the Diabetes Besties webpage.

January 2022

Novo Nordisk and Roche Diabetes Care re-affirm their joint commitment to reaching 100,000 children and youth with type 1 diabetes by 2030. Beyond continued support for medical supplies including insulin and blood glucose testing kits, the organisations aim to empower children and families, strengthen national healthcare systems, and explore new innovations and digital solutions for diabetes care.

Read the post from Mike Doustdar, Executive Vice President of International Operations at Novo Nordisk, here.

January 2022

Despite the continued impact of COVID-19 limiting critical in-person activities, the Changing Diabetes® in Children partnership continued our progress towards reaching 100,000 children with comprehensive care for type 1 diabetes by 2030.

This year we surpassed the milestone of 30,000 reached; launched five new partnership countries; kicked off a global collaborative with Harvard University and had our first digital Hackathon; and ran a number of awareness campaigns with BBC StoryWorks, NCD Alliance, and NCD Child.

Read our 2021 year-in-review report for more detailed information and we look forward to continuing our momentum in 2022!

October 2021

The Changing Diabetes® in Children partnership has now reached more than 30,000 children and youth with comprehensive care for type 1 diabetes across 18 countries! A historic milestone but not the end as we aim to reach 100,000 children and youth by 2030.

See the LinkedIn post and video about the milestone here

Hear a message from Samuel, who is enrolled with Changing Diabetes® in Children in Kenya on LinkedIn here

 

September 2021

To bring awareness to experience of living with type 1 diabetes in developing countries, Changing Diabetes® in Children has worked with BBC StoryWorks and the NCD Alliance to produce a short video and article.

Watch the video on the new face of diabetes care in Guinea here:

http://www.bbc.com/storyworks/facing-forward/giving-children-a-chance

Read about country-led innovations for childhood diabetes here:

http://www.bbc.com/storyworks/specials/innovations-for-treating-childhood-diabetes/

September 2021

Changing Diabetes® in Children expands its partnership with the World Diabetes Foundation with a 9.5 million Euro project to provide integrated type 1 diabetes care in eight African and Middle Eastern countries.

Read the full article here:

https://www.worlddiabetesfoundation.org/news/ambitious-project-supports-sustainable-care-youth-type-1-diabetes