Diabetes Youth
OUR YOUNG LEADER, LAURA Lately, Laura Snowden has been a regular on these pages. As Aotearoa New Zealand’s youth representative, she reports back from her time in Lisbon as a ‘YLD’.
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DIABETES WELLNESS | Autumn 2023
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ast December, New Zealander Laura Snowden travelled to Lisbon, Portugal, to attend the Young Leaders in Diabetes programme (YLD). This international programme provides young people with education, guidance, and support throughout a two-year period to empower and help them become efficient advocates for themselves and others living with diabetes. Currently, the network is comprised of 95 young leader trainees and a number of mentors. These mentors are graduated trainees who choose to continue working within the programme. When Laura graduates from the programme in two years’ time, she says she would like to become a mentor. The group was asked to do a project online and submit it. Sixty were successful and invited to the biennial training summit. Laura found out last September that she
was successful and would be flying to the Portugal capital, thanks to the help of Diabetes NZ. LISBON
Before she had even set foot on the plane, Laura had already connected with many of the other ‘YLDs’ from around the world, through their WhatsApp group a few months earlier. This made getting to know each other easy. She says it was an intense week, working alongside a large number of equally passionate people. The days were full, with everyone attending seminars on a wide range of matters. Just a few of the topics covered were the use of social media for advocacy, effective communication, and using inclusive language. Training in advocacy featured highly. This included guidance on how to use data for advocacy and an introduction to the Type 1Diabetes Index: an expansive gathering
