27/11/2025
Summary of Help Madina 2025 MDT trip to Sierra Leone 🇸🇱
It was a chaotic & challenging 2 weeks, which made a huge impact in raising awareness of diabetes.
- We handed over structured patient education resources: with PowerPoints & printed booklets 📒 for the facilitators. The plan is to record a Krio voiceover and play the PowerPoints on a loop whilst patients wait (for up to 6 hours) in the diabetes centre. This year’s fund raising will contribute to the screen 🖥️
- Breakfast TV interview: viewed in USA 🇺🇸 they contacted family in Freetown, where a relative was suffering with diabetic foot ulcers. The family moved patient to Makeni for treatment by Helen.
Diabetes Screening clinics in Makeni x 5: 447 screened, 53 (8.4%) found to have diabetes
- Daily Clinics: DSN (Alex), Podiatry (Helen) & Dietitian (Elaine)
- Meeting with traditional healers which was positive & collaborative. A traditional healer brought patient to diabetes clinic for treatment on our last morning.
- 2 Radio 📻interview to raise awareness
- 5 x Early bird teaching session to healthcare professionals in Makeni - 76% reported increased confidence levels from level 1 to levels 3&4
- Meeting with Mayor of Makeni to engage city administration in diabetes awareness
- Outreach clinic in rural Makari: 196 screened, 3 (2%) diabetes cases, 40 (20%) hypertension cases
- Meeting with Stocco prosthetics team to get orthopaedic shoes made locally to offload diabetic foot ulcers
- Specialist teaching session on diabetes in pregnancy by Alex
- World Diabetes Day Celebration with street parade followed by Q&A session
- Teaching Day to 152 nursing students at University of Makeni, 84% sessions rated at 4-5 for excellence, with huge improvement in knowledge/confidence:
92% increase to levels 4-5
Outreach clinic Kakuna 139 screened, 15 (11%) new diabetes cases, 5 (4%) new hypertension cases, 20 (14%) with both
Are you able to help this tiny charity to achieve more great things? Being a small charity, there are very small overheads, so every donation has a wider reach & bigger impact. https://www.justgiving.com/page/dsnforum-helpmadina?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
