BELMOPAN, Fri. Nov. 12, 2021 — On Friday, November 12, the Zacharias Palacio Diabetes Center was officially opened in Belmopan by Mayor Sharon Palacio.
At the hospital’s launch, Jihane Habet, the on-site dietician at the center, spoke about her role in encouraging the formation of healthy eating habits. She is tasked with nutritional education and educating the center’s patients about the critical role of nutrition and portion control. While the center will provide assistance to those suffering from diabetes, a core mission of the facility is to prevent the disease.
Dr. DePaz will serve as the hospital’s internal medicine specialist. In his address at the opening ceremony, he noted that under-diagnosis of diabetes continues to prevent patients from accessing care at an early stage of the disease. In reference to the health center, he said, “To have something like this in the capital city of Belmopan, it is great. In order for us to control something like diabetes in the country of Belize, we need to start in the center of the country; we need to start where all the decision-making is happening, where the policies are being produced.”
Mystery Furtado, a diabetes health activist and founder of Type Diabeat It, also delivered remarks at the launch ceremony. She outlined the programs that will be instituted at the new diabetes health center. “What we want to do is to be able to train young people. They are the future; we have to empower them so that they believe that they can live a healthier lifestyle, so this institute will not only provide support to existing diabetics, but we’re looking at prevention being a place that provides consistent, culturally competent, affordable and accessible information on resources.”
She also highlighted a program through which high school students deliver monthly breakfasts to the diabetes ward at the Western Regional Hospital. “It is a young people group whereby high school students come together. We make the breakfast delivery,” she said. According to Furtado, these high school students will be trained as junior diabetes coaches that will be able to go out and teach other young people how to manage, cope with and prevent diabetes. This training program will allow diabetes ambassadors to go abroad to receive more extensive training.