The College of Pharmacy Organizes World Diabetes Day Event

The College of Pharmacy, Ajman University (AU) has organized a virtual event in celebration of the World Diabetes Day 2021. The event, which was attended by over 70 members of AU faculty, staff and students, aimed to bring together college community and raise awareness with regards to the prevalence of Diabetes and its impact on our lives. Organization was successfully conducted by Dr. Hala Al-Obaidi, Dr. Nihal Abdallah, and the MSc students who worked together to moderate the meeting and collaborated with students to make the event happen.

The virtual event, conducted via Zoom meetings, was held on Thursday the 18^th of November 2021 at 12:30 pm with the display of 17 posters prepared by the undergraduate and postgraduate students of the college of pharmacy which explained the meaning of diabetes, its types, diagnosis, complications, and the role of pharmacists in its management. This was followed by an introductory presentation by Dr. Hala Al-Obaidi who spoke about the disease as well as the history of the World Diabetes Day which, this year, 2021, was focused on pre-diabetes and its effect on the prevalence of the disease. After that, six oral presentations were done by the students to further explain the aspects and elements of the disease and raise awareness about its detection and management followed by a very informative presentation by Coach Manal from the university’s sports centre who spoke about the importance of sports and active lifestyles in controlling diabetes. A short video https://youtu.be/T-7HE6ROmps which created, and played role by Alaa Ahmed, and edited by Mohammad Faisal and Ali Emad, undergraduate students from the college of Pharmacy, who also created a website specifically for the pharmaceutical care management of gestational diabetes, please see the link: https://wix.to/CZBelis was one of the highlights of the meeting which marked the end of the presentations session and the beginning of the competitive section of the event.

A Kahoot competition was held at the end of the event to bring up the students’ energy while simultaneously testing the knowledge they gained from attending the event. Nakisa Maleki, who was crowned the winner of the competition won a financial prize along with Alaa Ahmed and Faekah Alhamich, winners of the best presentation and poster respectively, to encourage students to attend and participate in future events held by the college’s events committee. Finally, certificates were issued to the organizers, participants, and attendees of this event by the student affairs to mark their presence in this memorable event.

The top 5 posters, selected based on students’ votes were:

1. The winning poster in the first place: “What is Diabetes?” by Faekah Alhanich
2. Second best poster: “Diabetes and Role of Pharmacist” by Nourrelieman Alabboud, Hala Athamneh, and Marah Birawie
3. Third place poster: “Diabetes Types” by Maryam Mohamed
4. Fourth place poster: “Diabetes” by Walaa Ibrahim, Mihad Salah, and Arig Hesham
5. Fifth place poster: “What is Diabetes” by Yaqeen Ibrahim

This successful event was yet another example that, despite anything and everything, AU community, will always make it happen!