Daily Times

Sanofi Pakistan is set to launch the 3rd wave of its international CSR program KiDS (Kids and Diabetes in Schools), this time in partnership with the National Education Foundation (NEF). This was announced at an MoU signing ceremony held at the Head office of NEF, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Islamabad.

KiDS is a global collaborative project of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and multiple partners, including Sanofi. The KiDS project aims to foster a safe and supportive school environment for children with diabetes to manage their condition and prevent discrimination while raising awareness about diabetes and the benefits of healthy eating habits and physical activity among school-age children.

“KiDS is a global educational project primarily developed for school children, school staff, parents of children with diabetes and parents in general. I am delighted to have on board public institutions like NEF as our partners. Our previous wave of the KiDS program mostly covered the private sector and it is exciting to now extend the benefits of this program to children enrolled in the schools of NEF situated in AJK in district Muzaffarabad, Hattian, Bala and Bagh.” said Asim Jamal, General Manager and Managing Director, Sanofi Pakistan.

Type 1 diabetes primarily develops in children. Albeit small in numbers, children with Type 1 diabetes often face discrimination in school and social life due to lack of understanding of their condition. The KiDS program addresses these issues in addition to building awareness of the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating habits at an early age to prevent the possible onset of Type 2 diabetes upon reaching adulthood.

Under this partnership, Sanofi Pakistan will conduct awareness sessions for over 4,000 school children across the 45 community schools of NEF during 2020 & 2023.

“Schools should focus on producing healthy, and well-rounded citizens. KiDS program is a fruitful step towards our goal of student well-being, while involving other stakeholders, i.e. teachers and parents as well. I am optimistic of the outcomes of this collaboration because public-private partnerships like these should thrive for the larger benefit of the population” said Tahira Shaikh, Managing Director, National Education Foundation (NEF).

Sanofi co-created the Kids and Diabetes in Schools (KiDS) program, a partnership with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) that aims to support children with type 1 diabetes manage their disease and avoid their discrimination in a school setting, and raise awareness on the benefits of healthy lifestyle among all schoolchildren. This educational program is based on a global KiDS toolkit, primarily targeted at teachers, school nurses and other staff, school children (6-14 years old) and their parents.

The program is implemented in Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, India, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, UAE and was recently initiated in Argentina. KiDS is part of the Access Accelerated, a first-of-its-kind collaboration, focused on improving care for non-communicable diseases.