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Reflections from the 2nd ICPPA — The Fight for Dignified NCD Care in Africa Continues

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Group photo From the 8th to the 10th of July 2025, I had the absolute honour of attending the 2nd International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa (ICPPA) held in Abuja, Nigeria. What a phenomenal gathering it was—a convergence of policymakers, implementers, donors, civil society, and people with lived experience, all rallying behind one shared mission: to scale equitable, decentralized care for people living with severe chronic NCDs across Africa. Alongside my dear colleague Neema Mohamed, we had the distinct privilege of representing Voices for PEN-Plus, and let me be clear—we didn’t take this lightly. As has now become tradition, I’ve penned this brutally honest reflection not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a call to remember, act, and deliver. The stakes are high. People are watching. People are waiting. A Voice From Within the System: No Longer an Afterthought This year’s conference was unlike any other. For the second time, Voices for PEN-Plus were not just included—they were he...
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Type 1 Diabetes and Wellbeing — Empowering Teens through Knowledge and Shared Experience

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On 28 June 2025, we hosted an unforgettable and deeply meaningful workshop at Sally Mugabe Children’s Hospital under the theme “Diabetes and Wellbeing.” This full-day engagement was a collaborative effort between our clinic, the Pediatric Diabetes Clinic from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, and the phenomenal support of #dedoc° , through our remarkable friend and ally, Bastian Hauck. The program brought together teens, young adults, and their families, creating a safe, supportive, and educational space where knowledge, advocacy, and lived experience intersected. Session Highlights: Tinotenda Dzikiti opened the session with “T1DM Overview and Lived Experience,” He provided a foundational understanding of type 1 diabetes as an autoimmune condition, highlighting its key symptoms. He reflected on the emotional impact of diagnosis, sharing how isolating the early years were for him—navigating life with T1D while relying mostly on adults living with type 2 diabetes for support, simply becau...
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Whose Standards Are We Chasing? Rethinking Diabetes Targets in Low-Resource Settings

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Let’s talk about a brutal truth: the global diabetes care playbook was not written with the Global South in mind. It was written in boardrooms, clinics, and conference halls in cities equipped with continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), insulin pumps, closed-loop systems, and endocrinology specialists on speed dial. And then—without pause—it was handed down to us as the gold standard. But here’s the kicker: while the benchmarks are aspirational, the tools to achieve them remain locked behind the towering walls of inequality. For people living with diabetes in Africa and across many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the standard of care set by high-income countries (HICs) is not just unreachable—it’s stigmatizing. Take “Time in Range” (TIR), for instance. It’s a concept that makes perfect sense when you’re wearing a CGM and adjusting basal rates on an insulin pump. But when you’re injecting premixed insulin twice a day without a glucometer or test strips, it becomes an abstract met...
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Crossing Time Zones with Diabetes: Stories of Resilience Without Pause

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Travel is often celebrated as an escape — an opportunity to break free from routine, explore new cultures, and broaden one’s perspective. But for those of us living with type 1 diabetes (T1D), travel is less of an escape and more of an intricate balancing act — one that demands heightened awareness, recalibration, and constant decision-making, especially when shifting between time zones. When I first travelled to the USA, I was still on Multiple Daily Injections (MDI), armed only with my Freestyle Libre 2 CGM — a gift from friends abroad. I was grateful for it, deeply so. But even with a CGM, navigating blood glucose management across continents was a physical and mental marathon. My body — used to one rhythm — was suddenly thrown into another. Meals, insulin doses, activity levels, even sleep — nothing matched anymore. My target range quickly became more of a dream than a standard, and glycemic control slipped through my fingers. There was no pump to automate anything, just me, my p...
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My Hybrid Closed-Loop Journey: Lessons, Laughter, and Lifelong Gratitude

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Omnipod Eros & Dexcom G6 Four months ago, I embarked on a hybrid closed-loop journey, armed with an Omnipod Eros, Omnipod Dash, Medtronic pump, Freestyle Libre 2, Dexcom one, and Dexcom G6, and the unwavering support of my closest friends in the diabetes DIY community. If you had told me a year ago that I’d be managing my diabetes with a fully integrated loop system, I probably would have laughed—partly in disbelief and partly because, let’s be honest, technology and I have had a complicated relationship. Yet, here I am, looping away like a tech-savvy T1D warrior, all thanks to the relentless kindness, generosity, and “we’ll-make-it-happen” attitude of some truly incredible people. From “Would You Wear a Pump?” to “Here’s Everything You Need” Medtronic 754 It all started with a simple yet life-changing message: "Hey Tino, if you’ll come to ISPAD, tell me what I can ‘collect’ for you that you are using for your personal T1D management. I’ll be happy to share what I can.” Imagin...
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Bridging the Gaps in Type 1 Diabetes Care: Reflections from the Copenhagen Meeting

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A couple of weeks ago, the World Diabetes Foundation, East Africa Diabetes Study Group, University of Geneva, and Danish Diabetes and Endocrine Academy coordinated an international meeting on type 1 diabetes (T1D) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The meeting brought together people living with T1D, early-career and seasoned researchers, and policymakers at the forefront of diabetes care across different regions. People with diabetes were included in most sessions of the meeting. While we’d like to think that clinicians and researchers don’t need constant reminders that there are people behind the statistics and data, it never hurts to put a human face and lived experience front and centre. These perspectives reinforce how diabetes impacts real lives beyond the numbers. People with Diabetes at the Copenhagen Meeting Throughout the meeting, people with diabetes spoke on panels and gave presentations about initiatives driving real change in diabetes care. The message was cle...
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