Diabetes project a vocation for Pacifica man

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jul 6, 2008 | by Julia Scott

Daniel Zoughbie met his Palestinian grandmother only once before she died of complications from diabetes because she couldn't get access to medical care.

He was 5 at the time, but the way she died stayed with him for the rest of his life.

Growing up in Pacifica, Zoughbie faced none of the problems his family in the West Bank had to contend with -- political instability, the threat of violence, and the difficulty of accessing doctors and hospitals on a regular basis. He heard stories about people similar to his grandmother, an overwhelming number of whom suffered from diabetes but didn't know about it until they were rushed to the hospital from complications.

He couldn't fix the political problems, but when he turned 20, he resolved to make sure that others in the Palestinian territories, which have a high incidence of diabetes, would not share his grandmother's fate.

A junior at the UC Berkeley, he applied for some fellowship money, flew to the West Bank for the summer, and founded the Global Micro-Clinic Project -- a grass-roots effort to help citizens, doctors and nurses educate each other about preventing and treating diabetes.

Zoughbie, now 23, managed to establish 50 "micro-clinics" in the Palestinian territories that year -- essentially a series of support groups based in people's homes where diabetics gather to share glucose monitoring equipment, discuss lifestyle changes and share prevention strategies.

Even doctors and nurses in the region are sometimes unfamiliar with the symptoms of diabetes, and Zoughbie's team trains them, too - - after which they go out and educate others.

"The Middle East is the diabetes capital of the world. The epidemic is exploding. It's going to undo all the economic progress in the region," said Zoughbie, speaking by telephone from Jordan last week. Zoughbie and his group are now establishing 1,000 micro- clinics across Jordan with the support of the country's Ministry of Health, local nongovernmental groups and the International Diabetes Federation. After that, he thinks the clinics could flourish in India.

Zoughbie's work was recently nominated for a special Teen Choice Award in a category that showcases nine young North Americans making a major difference in the world. The nomination came with a $10,000 cash prize; the award, to be presented on the Fox television network Aug. 4, is worth $100,000.

The Global Micro-Clinic Project has raised $700,000 in grants so far, primarily to support a staff of 25 along with several visiting fellows from UC Berkeley who are following in Zoughbie's footsteps.

"He created a new model for delivering health care to communities that are in crisis," said Ananya Roy, a UC Berkeley professor who is Zoughbie's former adviser in the Urban Studies program and a member of his board of directors. "The model, in many ways, can work in the U.S. and in different parts of the world. And he did it in a very difficult context where there were many powerful forces at work. I think it's quite an accomplishment."

So ambitious were Zoughbie's plans as an undergraduate that Roy confessed that she and other faculty members doubted it would work. But they underestimated what she calls his "wonderful, modest, quiet drive," the same drive that spurred him to become valedictorian of his class. Even back at College of San Mateo, which he attended for a few semesters, Zoughbie learned how to become a leader by helping to raise $70,000 for a county youth crime prevention program.

"There's potential to inspire those who are in Daniel's generation to also make a change and for them to try out their ideas and get engaged in the world," said Roy, referring both to the Teen Choice Awards and to her other students at UC Berkeley, with whom she likes to discuss Zoughbie's work.

Asked to describe why he decided to take the step of creating a whole project from scratch in a land he hadn't known for years, Zoughbie paused to consider his answer.

"I felt I needed to risk it. I didn't feel I could just sit around," he said. "I realized people were sick. They needed medication. I realized that when you have health you have hope. When you have hope you have other things. When they're sick they can't provide, and when people can't put food on the table they get irritable."

For more information on the Global Micro-Clinic Project, visit microclinicproject.org. Reach Julia Scott at 650-348-4340 or at julia.scott@bayareanewsgroup.com.