On 30 October, the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf in Berlin became the first German city to join the Cities Changing Diabetes network.
At the launch event attended by Novo Nordisk, three local
politicians, Mr Hans-Peter Kay (from the Danish Embassy) and Heike
Hanspach (from Berlin Partner), the District Mayor Dagmar Pohle signed
the Urban Diabetes Declaration. Speaking at the event, Mayor Pohle
said: "There are very many socially disadvantaged families for
whom prevention and health are not the most important issues. A very
high prevalence of diabetes further aggravates the situation
compared to other inner-city areas, as well as a blatant lack of
doctors and thus a lack of care in resident doctors”.
In order to create suitable joint interventions, one of the
first joint steps will be an epidemiological study through a Rule of
Halves analysis, so that the diabetes situation in the district can be
examined in detail. The aim is to find out where the vulnerable target
groups are located and how the appropriate projects can be
addressed.
The first joint prevention project #gehtdoch
was launched in the district with the support of Die Bewegung für mehr
Bewegung (The Movement for More Movement). The initiative is an
exercise campaign built around an app that records the participants'
minutes of movement. To encourage residents to sign up to the app,
many motivating and entertaining posters have been put up around the
district. There are also exciting prizes on offer from local partners
for those who manage to log the most minutes.
A bigger
launch event, which will be attended by all the local partners, will
take place once the lockdown in Germany has been lifted. For more
information, read the press release here.