Life for a Child: Expanding Diabetes Care for Vulnerable Youth
January 28, 2021 Posted by: Eli Lilly and Company
No matter where you live, being diagnosed with diabetes can be challenging. But for children and young people in low- and middle-income countries, access to care and medicine can be often complicated or even out of reach.
Through our collaboration with Life for a Child, we’re working to change this.
Lilly has collaborated with Life for Child since 2009 to find solutions for some of the world’s most vulnerable children. As of the end of 2020, Lilly had donated 2.4 million vials of insulin to the program, which provides access to care, education and life-saving medicines and supplies young people with type 1 diabetes in countries with limited resources.
Starting in 2021, Life for a Child, Lilly and our other collaborators will significantly expand access to care for youth with diabetes from about 23,000 in 2020 to approximately 150,000 over the next 10 years. The partnership will work to improve health outcomes through type 1 diabetes management support that includes access to insulins, reusable pens, blood glucose monitoring, A1C testing and diabetes education.
To support this expansion, Lilly is providing mealtime and basal insulins and reusable pens, as well as covering the costs associated with arranging, packing and shipping to countries in conjunction with Direct Relief.
This expanded collaboration will enable Life for a Child to reach children and young people – like Brandon – in more than 60 countries, including India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Bolivia.
The expansion of the Life for a Child program is part of Lilly’s social impact efforts and supports Lilly 30x30, the company’s goal to improve access to quality health care for 30 million people living in settings with limited resources, each year, by 2030. The expansion builds on decades of Lilly’s global health work to improve equitable access to diabetes care and medicines, including in Kenya, Mexico, South Africa and the United States.
You can learn more and get involved at Life for a Child.