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Protecting the young ones

To help raise the money, the group will launch a nationwide fund-raising drive across its 332 retail and hospitality outlets in the UAE during May 2012. The initiative complements the group’s on-going campaign on diabetes awareness – Beat Diabetes — and comes at a time when the IDF Diabetes Atlas 2011, estimates that 19.22 per cent of UAE’s adult resident population suffers from diabetes in comparison to other countries.

Established in 2001 with the support of the Australian Diabetes Council and HOPE worldwide, the IDF Life for a Child programme supports diabetes centres in developing countries in providing essential clinical care, medical supplies, and education for children with diabetes. The programme is currently helping over 8,000 children and youth across 37 developing nations such as Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sudan and the Philippines.

The IDF Diabetes Atlas states that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes among children is increasing at an estimated average of three per cent per year across the globe. Several European studies have suggested that, in relative terms, the increase is greatest among younger children. Saudi Arabia accounts for almost a quarter of the MENA region’s total of 64,900 children impacted by the condition.

The prevalence in the region among younger age groups is substantially higher than the global average.

As part of Landmark Group’s participation in the programme, customers are encouraged to donate Dh5 or multiples when making a purchase at any of its retail outlets in the UAE. The amount donated by every shopper during the month of May will be collected against a specialised barcode system. The approach will allow the system to record each transaction as well as the amount collected per day to maintain an optimum level of transparency on the fund-raising process.— news@khaleejtimes.com