20

In Morocco, at least 10,000 children under the age of 15 suffer from Type 1 diabetes. Due to the lack of appropriate management and care, these children are highly susceptible to repeated hospital admission and long-term disabling degenerative complications. With the aim of reducing the frequency of complications, a specialized outpatient clinic was created in the children’s hospital in Rabat in 1986. A multidisciplinary team provides medical care as well as initial training and continuing education to the patients and their families according to a standardized protocol. The 700 young diabetics who are monitored in the clinic are at present autonomous in the delivery of their own daily treatment and continue to improve. After ten years, this group of patients has experienced a diabetic retinopathy rate six times lower than since the onset of their illness. The program is administered in partnership and with the financial support of a private sponsor and assistance from a parents’ association. The program is designed in compliance with the WHO's Towards Unity for Health strategy and its core principles, namely relevance, equity, quality, and effectiveness. In order to achieve sustainability, the program needs to adopt a geographical management structure and more formalized relationships linking the partners. However, the program could be considered a laboratory experiment for Rabat's Medical School  in its search to create a wider social movement. This level of commitment implies recasting the focus of the medical training curriculum, promoting therapeutic patient education, giving greater attention to the hospital’s operations, and building sustainable partnerships.