Diabetes - take two

Despite the pain of a head cold, tortured feet, and a late night, it was back into the suit and heels and back to sitting for hours listening to more talking. Today's talks seemed a bit more interesting as they focused on action versus redundantly discussing the problem. Everyone would agree that a) diabetes is a major health issue; and b) something needs to be done. The problem is readily recognized that there are no people stepping up to take charge of getting it done. This is coupled by the fact that diabetes and its related friends hypertension, heart disease, cancer etc., are not eliciting the same response as more acute, emotional issues such as AIDS, or as was pointed out in several talks, civil rights, have done in the past. As of yet, there are no faces to go with the issue, in the media for example to garner the attention and ultimately, policy and monetary response.

I should also mention that this was a bilingual forum - mostly in English but often in French with people switching back and forth to use headphones to receive simultaneous translation. Indeed, the headsets were part of our gala table centerpieces the night before.

As the second and last night, we were bussed over to a restaurant for an evening of chatting, music, good food, and face painting (pic). It was a nice way to end the two very packed days. I definitely came away with a better understanding of the issues surrounding diabetes in developing countries and ideas for funding, partnering and projects. We'll have to see how transferable this information will be back at headquarters.