40% of Mauritians are Diabetic or Pre-Diabetic
80% of such CNCD* are Preventable
Calling on Mauritians and Friends of Mauritius of the World:
Unite to Fight the Scourge of Diabetes
We are an important voice in the life and success of the place we cherish
*CNCD – chronic non-communicable diseases are closely related preventable conditions of type II diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
Forty percent of citizens on the island of Mauritius have type II diabetes or are pre-diabetic, sadly one of the highest concentrations anywhere on the planet. Every citizen is affected directly or indirectly by CNCD. We are suffering.
We cannot make this suffering last any longer.
The troublesome situation with 40% of the population with CNCD is a national security threat to the motherland. We have to rise up and fight at the grassroots level for ourselves, our children, and future generations. By believing in the strengths of our communities in the mother country and other communities in which Mauritians have settled around the world (The Seven Nations), we have what it takes to right this plight.
See how you can help in the GFCH GEAPS 5 fields of action space.
The 5-2035 Global Foundation for Community Health: Focused on Grassroots Community Health to Vanquish Diabetes in Mauritius as Model for the World
Around a grassroots organization we have named ‘The 5-2035 Global Foundation for Community Health’ (GFCH – 5-2035.org ), we have a vision to beat down diabetes and its ugly cousins in Mauritius as a model for the rest of the planet. This vision, called 5-2035, aims to curb type II diabetes in Mauritius from its current 24% prevalence to 5% by the year 2035. We will prevail and we will showcase to the world how one global community can band together to lead the fight against the CNCD pandemic, just like Mauritius is a model of peace, harmony, and prosperity.
While 80% of CNCD are preventable, health care systems around the world have been unable to stem the rising tide of this pandemic. The 5-2035 vision is a radical departure from the traditional, ineffective ‘top-down’ system of health care delivery where experts and government officials force-feed communities to change for better health with little to show for it. Inspired by the SEED-SCALE (Self-Evaluation for Effective Decision-making + System for Communities to Adapt Learning and Expand) model of sustainable community-based human development, 5-2035 empowers communities to take charge of their health, thereby decreasing health care costs, strengthening local communities, and improving citizenship and quality of life.
The full 76-page 5-2035 white paper or the Executive Summary are available upon request. They explain how the Mauritian government, scientists, health professionals, the business community, and private citizens can work together using the SEED-SCALE approach to transform Mauritian health care as a universal model. 5-2035 calls for promoting national unity, investing in human potential in a fiscally-responsive manner, and focusing on public-private partnerships and pragmatic frugal innovation.
At the heart of 5-2035 is the community cell, a grouping of 1,000 neighbors represented by a volunteer apolitical community health committee (CHC) who will work together with a community health nurse practitioner (CHNP) in all matters relating to health and quality of life. Each group of 10 CHNPs will be supervised by a community health doctor (CHDr). This organization will be supported by a community health development initiative (CHDI) secretariat constituting support staff, principal CHNPs, and CHDrs overseen by a CHDI Czar. The CHDI will be overseen by a directorate of health care reform (DHCR) under the aegis of the Office of the President, the Prime Minister’s Office, the ministry of health and an external advisory board.
Our Mauritian community spread around the globe has the unshakable faith that in less than a generation, 5-2035 has the potential to be the beacon of grassroots-empowered health care delivery for the whole world. In so doing, Mauritius will become the steward of good citizenry and good health and quality of life.
How Can You Help?
GFCH GEAPS 5 fields of action for members
The 5 fields of action for members is easily recalled invoking the GEAPS acronym:
G – as in grassroots mobilization
E – as in excellence in clinical and scientific aspects of community health
A – as in advocacy, political, governmental and sociocultural
P – as in partnerships, public-private
S – as in spreading of the 5-2035 vision
A. Grassroots mobilization to empower communities to act for better health
By sensitizing your local community about the 5-2035 vision, you can become an advocate to introduce the plan into your community and help in decreasing the burden of CNCD locally. We are launching an ambitious grassroots effort in 2018 to kick off our generational 5-2035 struggle to conquer CNCD, fueled by community empowerment. Be part of this transformative movement.
How you can help: we need Mauritians and friends of Mauritius to be grassroots leaders, from the spectrum of ground game leadership to community health committee leaders (CHC). Please see our Organization Chart for positions currently available and what specifically is required to carry our mission. Please let us know if you are interested in any position of leadership and someone will get in touch with you .
B. Promotion of clinical and scientific excellence
We are in advanced planning efforts to invent a new health care professional designation called a community health nurse practitioner (CHNP). For further details, see here. We also plan to work with Mauritian stakeholders to develop the community health doctor (CHDr) program. We have a large network of clinicians and scientists who have advised us as we developed the 5-2035 vision. We would welcome more input to improve on what we already have proposed.
How you can help: we are currently looking for practicing nurses, physicians and scientists to provide input on our vision. The more input we receive from the community, the better we think our plan will be in practice. We will be kicking our the CHNP training program in Mauritius (Q42018) using our 5-2035 Corporate Wellness Program as a pilot and we would love to hear if you are interested in applying.
C. Political, governmental and sociocultural advocacy
The GFCH is fiercely apolitical but we realize that as an organization we need to use political tools of consensus building, reaching out citizens to promote the 5-2035 vision. While we think that a life of public service is a fine calling, our mission demands that we are transparent and seek help from all political colors. This is because at heart, at the GFCH, we view the CNCD situation in Mauritius as a national security threat. Because 40% of our population is either diabetic or pre-diabetic and 80% of CNCD is preventable, our mission is one of public health and advocacy, not political in the sense of running for elected office.
At the GFCH, we also view civil servants as our allies in the fight against CNCD. We understand the resource and regulatory constraints that civil servants have to work within. Our organization aims to work with government officials to facilitate their good work.
Mauritius is a country where religious and sociocultural organizations exert a profound sway. As the 5-2035 vision projects to serve all citizens of Mauritius as a model of national unity for the nation and the world, the GFCH is committed to engage these organizations to further our goals. We want to be culturally sensitive to every segment of the Mauritian society and opening a respectful dialogue with sociocultural components of our rainbow nation will be sought after by our leadership.
How you can help: we need to spread the world amongst the various stakeholders in Mauritius and we would be very interested of engaging any individuals or groups who can lend us a helping aim to reach our 5-2035 vision. Please let us know how you can creatively help in this regard.
D. Promotion of public-private partnerships
We think that engaging the private sector, especially social entrepreneurship, will stimulate innovation and efficiency in the deployment of the 5-2035 vision. When citizens are invested in a cause as entrepreneurs, it accelerates SEED-SCALE process; we view such engagement as vital to the 5-2035 vision success. In 2018, we will launch a 5-2035 Corporate Wellness Program that will use the private sector to test our our CHNP / CHDr system as a pilot for the national program.
How you can help: we need to connect with companies located in Mauritius to engage them to participate in our 5-2035 Corporate Wellness Program. Please contact us if you have leads that could help us start with a solid base of work force as a pilot for the 5-2035 vision.
E. Spreading of the 5-2035 vision
We are transparent in our ambition that we will strive to spread the success of the 5-2035 vision to communities around the world. Our ultimate goal is to see Mauritius be the ground-zero in our fight against CNCD worldwide through community empowerment and frugal innovation. To this effect, we have plans to publish our findings as we develop the 5-2035 community health program in peer-reviewed scientific and clinical publications. We have begun engaging and will accelerate our engagement with international organizations that will help us in capacity building to replicate the 5-2035 vision worldwide.
How you can help: we need to connect with international health and other organizations to brief them on our progress and would benefit from an international input to improve our 5-2035 operation in a pragmatic and frugally innovative manner. Please contact us if you have leads that could help connect with international organizations or governments to spread the 5-2035 vision.
Please see the 5-2035 Executive Summary to have an overview of our plan or request the full 76-page 5-2035 White Paper for further details. If you have any specific questions, please do not hesitate to leave your comments or contact us. Our response time may be slow as all of us at the GFCH are volunteers for the 5-2035 mission and have full time commitments. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Cahill-Keyes projection map adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahill%E2%80%93Keyes_projection | Illustrations, © Sujun & Sohur, 2016