DCB Newsletter #2/24: DID YOU KNOW… you can help crowdfund innovative diabetes education for South Africans?

Back in November, during our long-awaited DCB Start-Up Night, we successfully launched our very first crowdfunding initiative, supporting the People’s Diabetes Foundation Belize.

At the very same time, Bridget McNulty was on that same stage pitching for her initiative Africa Diabetes Chat as a finalist in our DCB Open Innovation Challenge. She scored second place in the category Digital Diabetes and we’ve maintained a valuable exchange ever since. Now, it’s time to combine all of those efforts and reach out to the whole community – to get the innovative Africa Diabetes Chat WhatsApp chatbot from the big stage into the hands of the people who need it most.

Join us in crowdfunding CHF 5,000 for the project and help us give South Africans with diabetes the tools they need to survive: Donate now!

Meet Bridget from the Sweet Life Diabetes Community in South Africa

Sweet Life is South Africa’s largest online diabetes community. They’re a non-profit and a public benefit organisation, and the primary focus is on diabetes education that people can understand, and relate to. Diabetes is the number one killer of women in South Africa, the number two killer of men. There is no national diabetes education programme, which means people don’t understand their condition – they are dying unnecessarily. Sweet Life is South Africa’s leading voice in diabetes, and they have an innovative solution for the problem: a WhatsApp diabetes education chatbot! Listen to Bridget tell their story and learn how Africa Diabetes Chat will help many people living with diabetes in South Africa:

How will your donation help?

Your donation helps give South Africans with diabetes the tools they need to stay alive. We all know that “knowledge is power”, but that knowledge has to actually be in the right format, and the right language, at the right health literacy level, to the right person – exactly when they need it. A WhatsApp chatbot has the power to do exactly that and each donation to our crowdfunding campaign empowers more South Africans with diabetes!

Where will your donation go?

Sweet Life Diabetes Community has spent the last three years developing foundational diabetes education content that they have been sending to clinics nationwide in leaflet form. The problem with print, however, is that it’s expensive and difficult to distribute. WhatsApp solves this problem by giving them direct access to people on their phones (there is a staggering 96% WhatsApp penetration in South Africa!)

Your donation will fund the full-time project manager, content development (text, images, video), translation and – critically – monitoring and evaluation. They have created focus groups across South Africa to test that this chatbot is truly useful, and understandable. The community is at the heart of everything we do – and that’s one big part of why we at Diabetes Center Berne want to support this impactful initiative.

Donate Now and Help Us Crowdfund Innovative Diabetes Education in South Africa

A little donation can make a big impact for people living with diabetes in South Africa – luckily, Swiss Francs translate to a lot of South African Rands! Any donation you can offer helps more South Africans with diabetes get the tools they need to stay alive. Join our crowdfunding for Africa Diabetes Chat by Sweet Life Diabetes Community and help us make a lasting impact: Donate now on wemakeit!

For any further questions about this crowdfunding initiative, please feel free to contact Svea Krutisch at DCB or Bridget McNulty at Sweet Life Diabetes Community.

Thanks so much for reading and we’ll provide you with the next episode of our newsletter soon!