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’.

Last 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 of worldwide data. One session featured successful stories of advocacy, such as Australia’s #cgmforall campaign.

Laura says she went into the training summit thinking there was no way she could advocate enough as one single human. She believed she was limited in the ‘noise’ she could make as an individual, even in our small country. ‘I thought, I’m only one person and there’s no way I can advocate to make any change.’ But on her final day, she was energised. ‘I thought, this is it. I’m going to go back, and I’m going to write to the PM. I’m going to say we need these things funded.’ Laura says she feels so much more empowered now, believing she has the tools and voice to help make things happen.

The busy week ended with the YLD regional elections at which Laura was elected the Western Pacific representative. As well as Aotearoa New Zealand, her area now covers Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Fiji, Cambodia, and Hong Kong.

THE PROJECT

Laura says it’s still early days, but that her project is leaning towards developing a programme to train leaders who will then go on to become mentors for young Kiwis living with diabetes. This will happen through camps and online training for the emerging leaders.

As members of Diabetes New Zealand’s Youth Forum, Laura and her working group conducted two surveys to gauge the interest in such a programme. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, with some surprising results highlighting a demand for a buddy from some older adults as well.

Laura will be working closely with her DNZ mentors as she drives through the project. The YLD training summit taught her that, to find inspiration and advice, it is encouraged to reach out to industry and organisations around the world who work with diabetes. That reach begins in her home town, where she is under the wing of Diabetes NZ Auckland Youth.

In order to stay in the programme, Laura has to submit quarterly updates. But she does have until 2024, when the next YLD summit happens, to complete her project.

The YLD always runs alongside the International Diabetes Federation Congress (IDF), and you can read about our team’s time at the IDF on the next page.

YLD attendees in front of the world flag wall

YLD Regional Representatives voted for 2022–2024

YLD attendees in front of the world flag wall; having an evening out at the Winter Wonderland Lisboa with other YLDs