The Rotary club of Anstruther joined forces with the Rotary club of Demerara in a $17,000 project to battle diabetes in Guyana. Funding support from the two clubs was doubled-up by a matching grant from Rotary ‘Foundation’ – an international charitable fund to which all 1.2 million Rotarians around the world contribute and which has as its motto ‘Doing Good in the World’.
Retired teacher Andrew Lindsay, who made this story possible, is now back in Anstruther following his most recent visit to Guyana. There, with colleagues from the Rotary Club of Demerara, he helped mount a medical expedition to the remote administrative ‘region 9’ where rainforest meets savannah. The culmination of two years’ planning, the project took diabetes screening, treatment and education to the Amerindian people of the area around the village of Annai – some 280 miles from Georgetown.
Andrew, who has family links to Guyana, and masterminded this joint venture said ‘Diabetes is a leading cause of death in the Caribbean, and is very prevalent in Guyana. Most people don't realise they have type 2 until health problems become acute, and possibly fatal. Most of the, often young, amputees you see in Georgetown are victims who had developed incurable peripheral ulcers that turned gangrenous. The cost in terms of health and sheer misery is incalculable and, whilst diet and exercise have a significant effect in halting the disease, testing is essential. Much preparatory work was done with the Rotary Club of Demerara to raise awareness and to establish collaborative links with the Ministry of Health’.
He went on to say ‘we wanted to test in the interior, where there is limited access to health care. When we did so we discovered that about 10% of the population had readings over 120 (which is at the top end of 'safe' blood sugar readings) and will need to be regularly monitored. The highest found was 600 – meaning straight onto insulin. Rotary’s work with the Ministry of Health is ensuring that drugs and test equipment are now being made available locally where they are vitally needed’.
Apart from the remoteness, poor medical support and extremely difficult and arduous travel, Andrew found there were unexpected hurdles too. For example, men especially are often reluctant to come forward to be tested, due to a stigma that has generally become attached to health outreach programmes; a stigma that, sadly, originated in well-intentioned AIDS testing projects. As a consequence requests for blood samples are not viewed at all favourably!
But this first trip was a success, with tests carried out, monitoring arranged and local training provided – as well as creating good publicity to help the project expand and grow.
