For
the second year running, Youth Empowerment through Education and Sports (YETES)
will on Sunday 13 November 2016 stage its Diabetes Prevention Campaign through
sports at the Independence Stadium.
The
event will include free blood glucose testing and counseling for youth, a 3on3
basketball and 6-Aside football tournament at Independence Stadium which will
be held from 9am to 6pm.
Mohamodou
Musa-Njie, executive director of YETES, said the event is designed to educate
and thereby empower the Gambian youth to identify and prevent diabetes through
sport.
Papa Njie, as he is widely known, added: “We
are not just educating; we are saving lives.”
He
said they are expecting 16 high schools to send in teams of boys and girls for
basketball and football.
During
the sporting events diabetes prevention messages and posters will be related to
the students, he also said.
“From
experience, we have found out that students tend to remember and retain more
information if done through sports,” he explained, saying the philosophy is
what YETES uses to sensitize the youth.
Diabetes
is a deadly disease that affects 371 million people worldwide, and 187 million
of them do not even know they have diabetes.
The
Gambia is not immune to this disease.
According to recent World Health Organization (WHO) data, the Gambian
population has a higher percentage overall of raised blood glucose level
compared to other sub-Saharan Africa countries.
Clearly,
something needs to be done about diabetes in The Gambia.