Blog 12) Peer support in southern Africa

Pitso Molemane about Diabetes

Despite the big stigma around diabetes in southern Africa, Pitso Molemane tries to break this. Pitso Molemane is a news reporter known from Kaya FM in Johannesburg (South Africa). He has been living with diabetes for 35 years now. He was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 when he was nine years old, which means he is dependent on insulin-injections twice a day. According to him, it is very challenging to live a healthy lifestyle. The main reason for this, especially in black low-income communities, is the easy accessibility for unhealthy food. 

He is determined to not allowing diabetes stopping him to live life to the fullest. Pitso wanted to show the world that it isn’t impossible to enjoy life with a chronic NCD such as diabetes. With this passion to raise awareness about the disease, he organized ‘the inaugural Run Against Diabetes with Pitso Molemane race’ at the Greenhills Stadium in Randfontein this year at sunday, april 7th. It consisted of a 5km fun run and a 10 km race to blow apart many myths about diabetes. 

Also on radio Pitso Molemane told his story of diabetes. He talked about how to manage the disease, and the importance of knowledge of your family members so that they could help you when necessary. The bad effects they suffered from due to the disease are also covered in the conversation, for example the stroke he suffered from.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to put the whole video online, but when you click on the picture below, you will be forwarded to the twitter account of Kaya FM where you can find a part of this interview in a video. 

Peer support  in Southern Africa

There are several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) acting upon in Southern Africa who provide peer support for those living with diabetes. An example of such an organization is Diabetes South Africa (DSA). Their missions can be described as follows: empower the people affected by diabetes with support on an educational level and raising awareness about the risk factors and symptoms by promoting a healthy lifestyle. This is also important for family members of diabetes-patients. On the other site, this organization is committed to better facilities and cheaper medications. 
DSA is part of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). The IDF consists of 246 diabetes organisations in 121 countries. DSA works together with Universities medical departments and state and provincial health departments, but also invests in specialized doctors in diabetes and companies which service people with diabetes, for example pharmaceutical companies. 

A study from the University of California in Los Angeles, at the center for community health, did research on the mobile phone as a tool for a buddy system for peer support for diabetes patients in South Africa. The aim of the study was to investigate the possibility and acceptability of a mobile phone for peer support among women with diabetes. 22 women in Cape Town followed a 12-week program in providing and applying knowledge to manage diabetes with its routines. Each of them was linked to a buddy via a mobile phone to give support and advice about daily health issues via text messages. Eventually they were evaluated on technology uptake, Body-mass Index (BMI), blood-glucose concentration and increase in health-seeking behavior, but also positive coping with healthy behavior.
The result showed a positive outcome for mobile phones as a peer support tool: 29% of texted questions were responded, women attended at least nine of twelve possible intervention sessions and ⅓ has even been to all of them.

References

• https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sundayworld/news/2019-04-02-molemane-has-defied-diabetes/
• https://twitter.com/KayaFMTalk/status/1062567844997709829
• https://www.diabetessa.org.za/about-us/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059372/