Health

Children face stigma of being diabetic in school

February 8, 2021 5:13 am

Lack of social awareness and stigma is being faced by children in schools who suffer from diabetes at an early age.

Most children feel isolated as they are held back from participating in school activities while most live in denial.

Many Fijians suffer from diabetes yet there is still a stigma attached to it that many people bring it upon themselves through poor diet or lack of exercise.

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Devina Chaudary who is a member the Young Diabetics Fiji says her son is a type one diabetic and people have to live with this disease throughout their life and they live a normal life.

“One of the incident is not getting enrolment in the school because of being a type one diabetic and some of the patients they are not involved in physical activities like they are not given chance to play on school team or tracks constantly they all face some sort of stigma.”

While many at the age of six talk about cartoons, young Namish has an idea of what type one diabetes is and knows when he needs to take his medication.

“Type one diabetes is when your pancreas is not working and when your pancreas is not working your sugar is low because when it low i need to eat candies and sweet.”

The stigma of diabetes has reached the very roots of our community. This needs to be addressed while many young Fijians are suffering.