AAPDGB was founded in 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland, on the initiative of Ms Adalgisa Lopes, who was motivated by suffering personally from the consequences of diabetes and seeing her fellow nationals not having access to adequate care.
- Adalgisa Lopes became diabetic at the age of 13 and due to the lack of treatment in Guinea-Bissau, she was forced to leave her home country to receive immediate treatment in Europe.
- In 1997, her twin sister, Artemisa Lopes, also fell victim to the disease. Due to a lack of financial resources, Artemisa could not leave the country to join Adalgisa who was then located in Switzerland. It was at this point that Adalgisa began to support her sister by regularly sending funds to help with her treatment.
- Over the years, Adalgisa learnt from her sister about the amount of people suffering from diabetes and the enormous difficulties of living with it in Guinea-Bissau. She therefore started sending additional funds to help some diabetic people around her sister to help them eat better. She soon realised that they had no knowledge about diabetes and no means to fight it.
- In January 2016, Adalgisa decided to contact the journalist of Radio Jovem in Bissau, Armando Conté, to be able to regularly explain what diabetes is and give advice for a healthy and balanced diet.
- In February 2016, Adalgisa contacted the diabetes department at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) to ask for information and advice to help her fellow citizens. She also contacted the Swiss Diabetes Association to present an initial project idea. At the same time, she started asking for medicines from pharmacies in Geneva.
- By talking to her circle about the difficulties faced by her fellow nationals, Adalgisa managed to raise more funds. With that she was able to buy medications and medical supplies from a pharmacy in Portugal and have them shipped to Guinea-Bissau. She arranged that, once arrived, the shipment would get sorted with the help of her sister Artemisa and a doctor friend, Dr. Tony, and that the medicines would get redistributed to diabetic people, with the agreement of the Director of the Simão Mendes National Hospital.
- Adalgisa then involved the Geneva Diabetes Association to help her organise nutrition and cooking workshops in Bissau for doctors, nurses, diabetics and their families.
- In March 2017, Adalgisa Lopes contacted the Humanitarian Service of the HUG specialised in diabetes to see if it would be possible to go to Guinea-Bissau to train medical staff with the agreement of the Ministry of Health and the green light of the National Hospital of Bissau.
- In April 2017 the association was established.
Now AAPDGB has grown to become recognised and has established collaborations with other partner organisations in Switzerland, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau. In particular, AAPDGB works closely with the Association Luta Contra Diabetes in Guinea-Bissau (ASLUCODIABETE-GB) founded by Artemisa Lopes, which is based in Bissau and works locally to distribute the medicines and materials purchased by AAPDGB to the population.
