[Photo: FILE]
If Fiji can mobilize courage and resources to tackle one national health emergency, why can’t that same urgency be extended to children living with diabetes?
That is the question raised by Diabetes Fiji Executive Director Marawa Kini in his Fiji Day statement, as he calls on the nation to extend equal compassion to every vulnerable group.
While acknowledging Government efforts to address HIV, illicit drugs, and communicable diseases, Kini highlighted the daily struggles of children who depend on insulin to survive.
Following Fiji’s declaration of HIV as a national crisis, Government expanded prevention, testing, and treatment, and introduced a needle and syringe program.
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He says Diabetes Fiji supports these evidence-based public health interventions, but stresses that children living with diabetes face a similar struggle.
Through its Young Diabetes Fiji Program, the organization currently supports 98 active young members across the Central, Western, and Northern Divisions, with previous records covering up to 500 children and young adults.
Many of these families continue to face the recurring financial burden of purchasing insulin syringes.
While the government provides insulin medication through the public health system, Diabetes Fiji points out that supplying medicine without consistent access to essential administration devices leaves treatment incomplete.
Kini emphasized that this advocacy is not a contest between health crises, appealing to the Ministry of Health to include insulin syringes as an integral part of the standard treatment package for insulin-dependent patients, starting with children.
He also urged Government to initiate a national dialogue on modernizing diabetes management and improving access to contemporary care and technologies.
Diabetes Fiji is calling on the corporate sector to move beyond conventional support by funding screening programs, telehealth, foot care, and youth camps, while inviting international partners to help design solutions tailored specifically to Fiji’s needs.