Don’t Sugar Coat It – Malta (MMSA)

Name of the activity: Don’t Sugar Coat It

Country/NMO: Malta (MMSA)

Program: Healthy Lifestyles & Non-Communicable Diseases

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

The activity is mainly composed of three events; preparatory workshop, main public event and public educational talk. The social media campaign is vital to gaining traction, compelling people to attend events and getting the message of empowerment across. Through the number of people in attendance of each event, and insights online we can understand how many people have been reached.

Focus area:

Diabetes

Problem statement:

It has been estimated that around 10% of the Maltese adult population suffers from diabetes. Also, studies involving the local population have shown that many people are unaware of their diabetes. Further to this, Malta was named the most obese nation in Europe in 2016.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

All diabetics in terms of management and prevention of complications and the general public in terms of prevention of the condition and education about it.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Human Resources
– Recruit 15 >second year medical students by one week prior to the training workshop to serve as leaders to train the new students
– Organise a 3 hour workshop on the 14th of November (World Diabetes Day) in which at least 50 first year medical students are given information about diabetes, taught how to approach people/answer their questions and how to perform the free health screenings we offer at our main events: BMI, Blood glucose, blood pressure and how to interpret and explain these results

Main Public Event
– Organise a public event in our Capital City on the 18th of November 2017 to raise awareness about diabetes through free health screenings and information stands.
– Perform at least 800 health checks
– Have at least 30 participants in our open air zumba
– Have information and quizzes on gestational diabetes due to the international theme being centred around women

Diabetes Talk
– Organise at least one talk together with a local council open to the general public (At least 25 people) whereby an endocrinologist provides information about diabetes and we organise free health screenings afterwards

Social Media
– Film and edit two videos, one depicting 4 VIPs passing on a message about world diabetes day and the other with specialists sharing information about diabetes
– Share infographics and sponsor these online for a maximal number of views
– Create a temporary profile picture and have at least 50 uses of it

Methodology:

A training workshop for medical students to prepare them for the upcoming events with training on health screenings, how to approach the public and general information on diabetes

A large public event with free health screenings as well as podologist students providing foot checks, an open air Zumba class, many information stands and fundraising in the name of the Malta Diabetes Association.

A public talk by an endocrinologist.

Filming and editing by a member of our team of the Minister of Health and Superintendent of Public Health. We also requested videos from two members of the European Parliament who emailed these to us from overseas.

Plans for evaluation:

– Number of leaders
– Number of first year students trained during the workshop
– Number of health checks performed (And so number of people)
– Number of people attending the talk
– Number of views online – impact of social media campaign