The ‘power’ of summer camp for kids with type 1 diabetes! You can help change a kids’ life

Swim and have fun at summer camp!

By Susan Burke March

Imagine having a three-year-old child and suddenly being told you need to become an expert in diabetes management — and your child’s survival depends on your managing their food, testing their blood sugar, and administering insulin injections daily, 365 days a year? Or…imagine having a teenager and telling them what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat? And ask them to test and treat? Oh boy.

Almost 20 years ago, Ana Fernanda Sanchez’s little three-year-old daughter Daniela (Dani) Molina was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-depending diabetes.  Ana Fernanda learned that there was no coordinated program or clinic in Cuenca where newly diagnosed patients and their families could find treatment and education necessary to cope with this life-changing disease.

Today, Casa de la Diabetes, a non-profit foundation founded by Ana Fernanda in response to the need, provides Cuencanos and expats with affordable and effective diabetes education and support.

Campamento 2018

¡El Campo está aquí!

Children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes have an especially challenging time. You never get a break from managing this disease, and successful management means the difference between living healthfully with diabetes or suffering complications from unmanaged diabetes.

To address this, Casa de la Diabetes has held a campamento annual para niños y adolescents con diabetes tipo 1 for the past nine years — a summer camp for kids to have fun while learning to manage their diabetes.

This year the camp will be from Thursday, August 22 to Sunday, August 25. More than 50 children and adolescents are registered, from Azuay, Manabi, Loja, Machala, and Macas. But if they can get the funding, they will include up to 80 kids! Add 20-25 adult team members, including mothers, volunteers, nutritionists, nurses and doctors — the three-night camp provides transportation, food, snacks, games and lodging — all are free to the children and team members.

According to the American Journal of Managed Care, summer camp for kids with type 1 diabetes has been around since just after the discovery of insulin, in 1925. The goals then are the same as today: to give children with type 1 diabetes a summer camp experience in a medically safe environment, where they can take important steps toward self-care and form bonds with other children like themselves.

Learning how to test and treat.

The American Diabetes Association conducted a scientific survey and demonstrated that diabetes camps make kids feel more independent and confident in managing their diabetes; they’re better able to handle emotional stress related to their diabetes, and newly diagnosed children benefit from camp the same way that returning campers do. Camp is often the first place that a child learns to manage their diabetes independently: they may learn to count carbs or even administer their own insulin for the first time at camp.

Casa de la Diabetes’ campamento achieves these goals.

With volunteers supervising and supporting, over three full days and nights, kids play, swim, perform skits and have huge bonfires, all the while perfecting their blood glucose monitoring and insulin administration skills, in an atmosphere that’s free and easy. Because all the kids have type 1, there’s no stigma to having this permanent disease — for many of the kids it’s the first time they feel so “normal!”

As Jane Chiang, M.D., of the American Diabetes Association says, “Diabetes doesn’t rule the kids; they rule their diabetes.”

The Foundation can use our help. Please consider contributing to this year’s camp. Over the course of three days and nights, this camp does change kids’ lives for the better.

Click here to donate directly through Banco Produbanco

Your help is very important
You can contribute to the following account
Banco PRODUBANCO
Account number: 02070009933
Type: Current
In the name of: Fundación Los Fresnos
Swif Code: PRODECEQ
Address: Paucarbamba 3-30 and Los Fresnos, Cuenca
Phone 099 807 5013

Click here for their Facebook

Or contact me to learn more: susanthedietitian@gmail.com

Click here to see the fun! Campamento 2018

Casa de la Diabetes in Cuenca connects healthcare experts to patients and their relatives with the goal to improve the quality of life through timely care, diabetes education, and prevention.

Ana Fernanda Sanchez, founder of Casa de la Diabetes.

Founded by Ana Fernanda Sanchez in July 2002, Casa de la Diabetes is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) solely devoted to improving the lives of patients and their families with diabetes, both type 1 and type 2.  From the smallest child to seniors, all can obtain life-saving treatment and education.

Registered in July 2002 with MIES (Ministerio de Inclusión Económica y Social) La Casa has served thousands of patients, and funding is important. The clinic’s doctors take a steeply discounted rate, and drug companies donate insulin. Casa de la Diabetes relies on many volunteers, and donations and sponsors to help fund the clinic.

Un saludo de Ana Fernanda Sánchez, fundadora de la Casa de la Diabetes.

Casa de la Diabetes Campamento 2019

El Campamento Vacacional para niños, niñas y jóvenes con diabetes tipo 1, es un evento gratuito que la Casa de la Diabetes organiza anualmente. Este año se desarrollará del 22 al 25 de agosto del 2019, en Yunguilla – Santa Isabel.

Ofrece un conjunto de actividades, dinámicas y enseñanzas lúdicas y didácticas que complementan la labor que se realiza en el tratamiento médico y manejo de la diabetes de los pacientes con Diabetes tipo 1.

En este espacio se potencia el conocimiento, la educación y auto manejo, en un ambiente donde la naturaleza ofrece la posibilidad de desarrollar actividades atreves de la convivencia y la relación con sus pares.          

La actividad estará dirigida a niños, niñas, y jóvenes con diabetes tipo 1; con edades comprendidas entre 5 y 21 años.

Al campamento asisten gratuitamente aproximadamente 80 niños y jóvenes con diabetes y 20 profesionales de la Fundación compuestos por un equipo de médicos, nutricionista, educador en diabetes, monitores, voluntarios y estudiantes de medicina.

Puede conocer sobre campamentos anteriores en:

https://casadeladiabetes.org.ec/campamento

Podrías ayudarnos apadrinando a uno o varios participantes.

Contamos con tu apoyo.