AT&T Contributes to Project HOPE to Help Tackle Burden of Diabetes in Mexico

Project HOPE announced today it is working to help address the enormous burden of diabetes in Mexico thanks to a $75,000 contribution from AT&T.
Posted: October 5, 2015

Improving Skills of Health Workers and Increasing Public Awareness to Save Lives

Millwood, VA, October 5, 2015
Improving skills of health workers in Mexico for diabetes

Project HOPE, a global health and humanitarian assistance organization, announced today it is working to help address the enormous burden of diabetes in Mexico thanks to a $75,000 contribution from AT&T.

There are nine million people living with adiabetes in Mexico, which has the sixth most cases of the disease in the world. Diabetes accounts for 70,000 deaths every year in Mexico and is one of the top two causes of death in the country, alongside heart disease.

Supported by the contribution from AT&T, Project HOPE is partnering with Ser Bien (Wellness Health Services or Servicios de Bienestar en Salud), a local NGO in Mexico City to address challenges that patients face in managing diabetes. The 10-month program will also implement ways to improve the skills of health workers to teach diabetes self-management and raise public awareness about the disease.

“It’s important to offer innovative methods to achieve lasting results, and we believe our “5 Steps for Self-Care” program – a game-based curriculum developed with Ser Bien – will teach diabetes patients or those at risk of developing the disease how to identify and modify risk factors for a better quality of life,” said Cary Kimble, Associate Vice President of Development at Project HOPE.

The program aims to teach patients and health workers the following:

 

  • Importance of adopting healthier lifestyles to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes
  • Central role of daily self-management by patients to decrease or delay the risk of related chronic complications and improve quality of life
  • Importance of early diagnosis to ensure timely treatment and improve patient outcomes
  • Active collaboration between skilled health care providers and patients in regular clinic visits is key to optimizing diabetes control
  • Patients with better diabetes education and control can play a transformative role in their families and neighborhoods, demonstrating that the disease can be managed and reducing fear of diagnosis and treatment

 

“This project shows the commitment that AT&T has with Mexico. We are excited to support Project HOPE and its work with Ser Bien to combat diabetes in the country.  Creating a team of skilled health care workers who can offer practical patient education that is effectively adopted to improve daily self-care will bring us a step closer to this goal,” said Cristina Ruiz de Velasco, Executive Director, External Affairs for AT&T in Mexico.

Project HOPE has been addressing the growing diabetes epidemic in Mexico since 2003 and works with local NGOs, government and academic stakeholders to address the needs of people living with, or at-risk for, chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.  Project HOPE’s diabetes work began in China in 1998 and now includes programs in India and South Africa.

About Project HOPE

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health education, as well as conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 30 countries.  Follow us on Twitter: @projecthopeorg.

About SerBien

Founded in 2005, SerBien (Wellness Health Services or Servicios de Bienestar en Salud) has worked with Project HOPE in Mexico for the past decade, developing 5 Steps to Self-Care, a patient education curriculum recognized as a global model from improving diabetes control. The non-profit trains multidisciplinary health workers and peer (patient) educators, while offering clinical services to improve access along the continuum of care for low-income residents of the Mexico City metropolitan area.

About AT&T

AT&T1 in Mexico includes the Iusacell, Nextel Mexico and Unefon networks. AT&T will transform the telecommunications industry here by generating more competition and building the new generation of mobile Internet in Mexico. We will extend next-generation, high-speed mobile Internet to 100 million people by 2018 and are creating the first-ever North America Mobile Service Area, covering more than 400 million consumers and businesses in Mexico and the U.S.

For more details about the AT&T brand in Mexico, visit att.com.mx.

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