By Michael Gwarisa
At age 13, in 2010, Tinotenda Dzikiti accompanied his parents for the Christmas holidays in the village. Unbeknown to him, his life was about to change in the coming few days. What started as normal festive mood cravings for fizzy drinks, food and sweet things later turned out to be symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, a condition he has had to live with ever since.
Even in the few weeks preceding the Christmas holidays, Tino started losing weight and developing an insatiable appetite for fluids and sweet things.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2010. I remember at that time I was in the village in Chivhu because it was during the festive season on the 28th of December 2010, so I remember the day like a bright day,” said Tino.
“I was just losing weight, i was felling all the common symptoms of diabetes, getting thirsty and severe hunger. I remember on Christmas day, I drank lots of soft drinks because I thought I was just thirsty for the sweet things. I was losing weight but my family could not even pick up that I was exhibiting diabetes symptoms.”
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune condition that can affect anyone. In Zimbabwe, Type 1 Diabetes is slowly becoming a public health concern with data from the Diabetes index estimating that Type 1 Diabetes is growing at 6.6 percent each year compared with 2.9 percent for Type 2 Diabetes. However, 5.2% of children who develop type 1 diabetes in Zimbabwe are never diagnosed as the disease is not on the radar of the healthcare community. Very few children born with Type 1 diabetes make it past their fifth birthday.
For Tino it took him and his family some time before they realised he was having Type 1 Diabetes.
“We didn’t know what it was. So, until December, I would struggle a lot. My grandfather just said I think you need to be taken to the hospital or to the clinic, because I was in the village, like I said. So when that happened, fortunately, the nurse from the clinic suspected that I had diabetes. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the equipment to test or the other devices needed to diagnose what was happening to me.”
He was referred further for specialist diagnosis in the city. His parents took him to a private hospital. Unfortunately, the doctor also struggled to ascertain what was eating him up.
“Unfortunately the general practitioner at the time didn’t know what diabetes was, and they didn’t even have diabetes equipment or any device to test me. Rather, they used ketone test meters which meant that I had diabetes. The blood sugar was extremely high. I could have died, but I didn’t.“
His parents later took him to a public where he was hospitalised and put on treatment.
“I stayed in hospital for some days, I remember it was six days and then I started complaining saying I needed to go back home. I didn’t like the food and the environment.”
Even though he didn’t get training on how to inject himself, his parents roped in the service of a family friend who was a nurse who later helped him manage his diabetes from home. Things went on for a while without any improvement but along the way, Tino found his mojo and started living positively with Type 1 Diabetes.
Breaking Into the International Scene of Renowned Public Speaker
Nine years later in 2019, Tino visited the Zimbabwe Diabetes Association. There was a diabetes education or diabetes chat on the day.
“So that happened. And then I remember, later during that session, I remember there was a dentist. She came and said, okay, I want to do a screening for everyone. We did a screening. The following day, she said, come back for cleaning. I went back, and then we did a session together. She cleaned my teeth. Later on, I think three months later, she called me to say the Zimbabwe Diabetes Association was looking for a guy. They needed someone to represent the Zimbabwe Diabetes Association at an advocacy campaign in Ethiopia. So that was the beginning of the wind of my opportunity.
“That’s when everything started. I didn’t know what diabetes was. I then went to Ethiopia. I had a passport. I was just starting at university where I was studying finance. I went to Ethiopia. We had a training camp. And it seemed like everybody who was in camp was ten steps ahead of me. I didn’t know what diabetes was. I didn’t know the questions they were asking. And I remember, after the session, I was the one who gave the vote of thanks. Everybody was impressed. I didn’t even know. I wasn’t the person who would have to stand to speak in public, even in front of three people, I wouldn’t want to do that. But now, I can even speak in front of five million people. It’s all because of this exposure that I got.”
When Tino returned from Ethiopia, he wrote a report and sent it to the people who had appointed him as ambassador which impressed his handlers.
“I wrote a report, and then I was now part of these amazing groups from Uganda. They had a blog. I remember I created my blog, I wrote my story, the summary that I’d written to the association, I had to post it there, I wrote my story and then I said, okay fine, I’m going to continue writing things like this.
In 2020, one of the members he had met at the IDF youth camp sent him a link to an organization called #dedoc°, which he now belongs to. The organisation sponsors people to go to conferences across the world. Tino has capitalised on this opportunity to share his diabetes story far and wide. Tino has also appeared on several television and Radio interviews.
He is also now a member of a voluntary group championing Type 1 diabetes and severe NCDs’ advocacy under the World Health Organisation (WHO) PEN-Plus strategy. The group is known as the voices of PEN-Plus.
“With WHO, we have what we call the PEN. So with WHO PEN, what they do is they try to cover the less severe or the common non-communicable diseases like respiratory heart disease, and what else, cancer type two diabetes management. And now where PEN-Plus comes in, it tries to strengthen what is already there, what is already in existence, to cover issues to do with severe NCDs, or severe non-communicable diseases, which is Type 1 diabetes, is severe. We also have congenital heart disease, and rheumatic heart disease and sickle cell.”
At the just-ended ICPPA conference in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania, Tino and his colleagues under the PEN-Plus voices banner made moving presentations and statements that left delegates in awe. In life, troubles and challenges will always come, what matters is what you do in the face of adversity and challenges. Even though Type 1 diabetes is the most severe in the Diabetes family, Tino and many young people have changed the discourse around the disease and have inspired hope in many survivors.
