To celebrate World Diabetes Day, Laâyoune launched the Kingdom's first-ever Diabetes Village this Friday, located in Al-Mechouar Square. This pioneering initiative offered residents completely free screenings, medical consultations, and treatments.

This is a truly national initiative, allowing us to reach a large number of citizens and raise awareness about a disease that affects nearly 10% of Moroccan adults, emphasized Sonia Abahou, president of the Moroccan Diabetes Federation.

The Wali of the Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra region, Abdessalam Bekrate, launched the operations, which target both people living with diabetes and citizens wishing to benefit from free screening for this disease.

According to the latest national census (2017-2018) on common risk factors for non-communicable diseases, diabetes affects approximately 10.6% of Moroccan adults aged 18 and over, recalls the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

A complete medical village

The Diabetes Village offers a comprehensive care pathway. According to Sonia Abahou, residents can consult diabetes and hypertension specialists, ophthalmologists — including retina experts — and access a module dedicated to diabetic foot in order to prevent amputations.

Psychological support has also been central to this initiative. It is essential support to help patients live with the disease and limit the risk of depression, especially during the early stages of diabetes diagnosis, a time often perceived as a real turning point in the patient's life.

Among the participants, several residents expressed their relief and gratitude: We really needed this. Diabetes leads to many complications—vision, kidneys, legs—that many people are still unaware of. Today, I received a warm welcome, had consultations, and comprehensive tests. We learned a great deal and sincerely thank the doctors, some of whom even came from Casablanca.

The Village is distinguished by a citizen-led and free approach, while maintaining high medical standards, supported by a rigorously supervised team trained in the management of this chronic disease.

This initiative comes in a worrying context: in Morocco, nearly 10.6% of adults live with diabetes, and worldwide, 537 million people are affected, recalls the International Diabetes Federation.