The Gabric Diabetes Education Association, (GDEA) has launched the blue ribbon campaign to prevent and control diabetes in the country.
Homa Bozorgpour, a specialist, said GDEA was created in 2006 with prevention and control of diabetes as its priority. The NGO was founded by key endocrinologists, benefactors and motivated type 1 diabetics. GDEA mission is to improve the lives of diabetic people and to promote primary, secondary and tertiary diabetes prevention via education, awareness-raising, and motivation.
She asserted that most of the staff members (excluding educators) are diabetic patients who have the disease well under control and provide peer-to-peer consultation and motivation to others. Their aim is “no diabetic patient should deal with the side effects due to lack of awareness.”
GDEA was selected as the best educator of diabetes prevention through a comprehensive model, in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2010, Bozorgpour said.
The blue ribbon campaign was started in November 2013 simultaneously with the National Week of Diabetes in Iran.
The name Gabric comes from a river in southern Iran.
